EU: no import approval for triple resistant GM soy

The majority of the European Parliament wants to keep GM soy out of EU-agriculture. (Photo © Pixabay)

Recently, the European Parliament predominantly raised an objection against the import approval of the genetically engineered soy-breed DAS-68416-4. Thereby, a GM plant which was made resistant against three pesticides at once was discussed for the first time.   

On Wednesday, Martin Häusling, speaker for agricultural policy and member of the ecology committee of the European Parliament commented: “With this voting result, the European Parliament clearly states: We do not want and we do not need GM soy. It is confusing, that we still have to negotiate such a doubtful product like GM soy. The facts speak volumes: Concerning the GM breed which was decided on today, information from different EU-countries proves that GM soy which was made pesticide-tolerant, cannot be declared as being harmless with respect to health and environment. Quite the contrary, independent research proves severe health damage due to the cultivation of GM soy: the same pesticides that support the growth of GM soy to become a profitable plant for multinational companies contaminate water, air as well as all the people, who (e.g. as a worker) get in contact with the herbicides. Moreover, cultivating GM soy destroys biodiversity.”