EU Commission presses ahead with SmartStax pesticidal maize authorisation and Former EFSA GMO Panel members and ILSI affiliates lobby against animal testing of GMOs
1. EU Commission presses ahead with SmartStax pesticidal maize authorisation
Testbiotech, 10 July 2013
On 11 July, the EU Commission and representatives from EU Member States will meet again to vote on the market authorisation of the genetically engineered maize SmartStax for use in food and feed. SmartStax is a joint Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences crop plant that produces six insecticidal proteins and is tolerant to two herbicides. Together with SmartStax, another nine new variants of genetically engineered maize will be on the agenda in July, all of them produce insecticidal toxins and are resistant to herbicides. One is sold under the brand name Powercore. Furthermore, pollen from genetically engineered maize MON810 is about to receive an authorisation for usage in food such as honey.
Market authorisation for SmartStax and Powercore was viewed favourably by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2010 despite dossiers from the industry being substantially flawed. Combinatorial effects between the insecticidal toxins and the residues from spraying were, for example, never investigated. In December 2012, Testbiotech raised the alarm warning that the maize might have already entered the market illegally. Instead of stopping imports, the Commission is now pressing ahead with the procedure to allow SmartStax for use in food and feed. Very recently, Testbiotech wrote a letter to the EU Commission about new findings from feeding trials with pigs using similar maize variants showing health impacts such as severe inflammation. If there is new information on the relevant risks, EU regulation requests precaution, which in turn should stop genetically engineered plants from being placed on the market until more evidence is made available. We think the new findings are relevant for SmartStax as well as Powercore. Please see letter attached.
SmartStax and Powercore combine various insecticidal toxins that were originally found only in soil bacteria. These maize events are grown in the US and Brazil because pest insects are increasingly adapting to genetically engineered plants that produce just one single toxin. One of the toxins produced in the maize (Cry1A105) is artificially synthesised from several bacterial proteins and does not have a true homology in nature. In addition, the plants are resistant to glyphosate herbicides and glufosinate. The risks of this stacked maize have never been fully investigated. There was, for example, one trial where poultry was fed with the kernels for just 42 days in order to observe weight gain. In the case of Powercore the results from these feeding trials were even rejected by EFSA as unreliable. EFSA, however, still gave a favourable opinion without asking for any further studies.
Testbiotech is demanding a new and comprehensive risk assessment of these genetically engineered plants, the authorisation procedure to be suspended and efficient measures implemented to stop its import into the EU.
In an email action several thousand people have already urged the EU Commission to prevent it from allowing SmartStax to be sold in the EU.
If you want to support the activity please spread this information.
Thanks for your interest,
Christoph Then, Testbiotech
E-mail activity to prevent SmartStax: http://www.testbiotech.de/en/smartstax
More background on risk assessment of SmartStax: www.testbiotech.de/en/node/515
Briefing on risk assessment of pollen from GE maize MON810: http://www.testbiotech.org/node/766
Contacts: Christoph Then, Testbiotech, Tel +49 (0) 15154638040, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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2. Former EFSA GMO Panel members and ILSI affiliates lobby against animal testing of GMOs
GMWatch comment, 10 Jul 2013
The former chair of the European Food Safety Authority's GMO Panel, Harry Kuiper, has joined with another former GMO Panel member, Howard Davies, and former EFSA GMO working group member Esther Kok to publish a paper arguing for the abolition of animal feeding trials with GMOs.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.12091/abstract
The paper comes just months after the publication of the Seralini study, which found that GM maize and tiny amounts of Roundup had serious health effects in rats:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637
and shortly after a separate study found that GM feed had adverse effects in pigs:
http://www.organic-systems.org/journal/81/8106.pdf
During the time he served as the EFSA GMO Panel head, Kuiper was also affiliated with the GM industry-funded group ILSI, which specialises in designing industry-friendly risk assessment methodologies and inserting them into regulatory guidelines:
http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/426
Kok is also an ILSI affiliate. Kuiper and Kok have published various articles on the risk assessment of GMOs and their recommendations, such as the comparative assessment, have been formally adopted by EFSA and the new GMO Regulation 503/2013.
http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/426
Kuiper's long-standing affiliation with ILSI at the same time that he was at the GMO Panel is the subject of a complaint to the EU Ombudsman by the public interest scientific group Testbiotech.
The Kuiper/Kok/Davies intervention comes as the US tries to demolish the EU's regulatory system for GMOs via the EU-US free trade talks, which are happening behind closed doors.
http://www.dw.de/trans-atlantic-trade-talks-seen-as-anti-consumer/a-16874500