On April 28th, the French Council of State has recognized the argumentation of the Federation of Farmers Trade Unions (Modef) which defended that authorizations granted by the french biosafety commission on 1st of June 2004 (CGB), had followed an irregular process. The Modef had estimated that the CGB and the Minister of Agriculture had taken their decision based on an incomplete technical documentation that did not comprise enough information as regards to the location of the proposed disseminations. An argument that the french highest administrative court has validated.

The french Council of State estimated: "that it is the CGB's responsability to assess not only the effect of the dissemination on plants but also the elements that establish the overall risk assesment which must include the precise knowledge of the geographical location of each of the evaluation sites" and concluded that "Monsanto had failed to give such an important information"

Confronted to a major refusal of its technology by consumers and a large majority of farmers, Monsanto is in fact been trying to adapt the French legislation to its needs by not releasing to the public the exact location of its assesment fields as the law obliged it to do.

Indeed, for the last couple of years, all over France, there has been several civil desobedience uprooting demonstrations of some of Monsanto’s evaluation sites as well as others multinationals ones. Subsequently, farmers that want to plant trasngenics maize are forced to do it in secret while Monsanto tries to hide the exact location of its trials with the complicity of the government, such an opaque process was therefore, judged unlawful.

Therefore, past authorizations given by the CGB, in 2006, that followed a similar process could well be cancelled as well in the future.

Contact : Etienne Vernet. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.