EU to vote on SmartStax

The EU Commission and representatives from EU Member States will meet again to vote on the market authorisation of the GE maize SmartStax for use in food and feed on 11 July, Testbiotech reports. 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 - 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.

Recent publications are shedding light on the risk assessment of the GE maize SmartStax. Scientists in Australia, for example, fed a mixture of genetically engineered maize to pigs and found it had significant effects on their health. The feed used in the Australian trial had a similar mixture of residues from spraying with herbicides and insecticidal toxins as SmartStax. It is currently not known if SmartStax could have similar effects. There has, in fact, been no feeding study to investigate effects on health carried out with this maize, which produces a mixture of six insecticidal toxins and was made resistant against two herbicides, according to Testbiotech. More information is available here: http://www.testbiotech.de/en