(Fwd) EU rejects Austrian BT-maize warning

Chris J. Durden drdn at mail.utexas.edu
Sun Oct 24 15:02:30 EDT 1999


  Can anyone point me towards a listing of GM-produce. I would be most
interested in knowing what traits have been spliced into which crops?
  Why? I have been lately been coping with late onset celiac sprue-like
symptoms by trial and error.
  Fresh corn I give a sniff test and reject it if it has a certain odor.
Wheat I have replaced with spelt. Potatoes I have replaced with yuca. Since
the devastation of banana crops in Honduras following the hurricane and the
subsequent import restriction war between US and EU - bananas have not been
the same, specifically red bananas (different flavor and digestibility
comarable to the improved generic yellow).
  In searching for a common thread - I wonder if BT-production or other
exotic chemical changes introduced into improved strains may have an
adverse effect on the immune system and allergic susceptibility. It sure
would help if this new/improved produce were labelled!
  Meanwhile I select heirloom and foreign produce and avoid fast food
outlets with noticeable effects when I lapse.
.......Chris Durden

At 09:13  24/10/99 -0400, you wrote:
>This message seems relevant to discussions some months ago. M GOCHFELD
>===============================================================
>--- Forwarded mail from Gary Greenberg <Gary.Greenberg at DUKE.EDU>
>
>EU scientists reject Austrian evidence on GM maize
>
>http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=4286
>Read the whole article at the original web-site
>
>BELGIUM: October 21, 1999
>
>BRUSSELS - The European Union's top scientific experts yesterday
>rejected evidence submitted by Austria claiming a link between a
>widely-used variety of genetically modified maize and environmental
>damage.
>...
>
>The European Commission asked the committee to investigate whether
>evidence submitted by Austria threw into doubt an earlier decision to
>approve a Bt-maize variety developed by Monsanto Co (MTC.N and, by
>extension, two other Bt-maize plants marketed by Novartis AG. Austria
>has a unilateral ban on the products, citing potential health and
>environmental risks. Its domestic ban will also now be called into
>question, EU officials said.
>
>Austria banned the Novartis maize in December 1996 and the Monsanto
>maize, known as Bt-Maize MON-810, on May 27, 1999. It sent the evidence
>sent to the commission in June this year.
>
>NO NEW SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION
>
>"The scientific committee concludes that the information submitted by
>Austria does not constitute new significant information that was not
>already considered in its original risk assessment," said a committee
>report published on the Internet.
>
>The 15-member EU has not approved any new GM crops since April 1998 as
>consumer concerns grow about the safety of foods derived from crops
>modified by biotechnology.
>
>In May, the Commission, the EU's executive, announced it would freeze
>the approval procedure for another Bt-maize developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred
>International Inc following a scientific study showing that pollen from
>Bt-maize could kill butterflies under laboratory conditions.
>
>...
>
>Resistance in Europe to biotechnology has raised the threat of a new
>transatlantic trade conflict. The United States is angered that it has
>been blocked from exporting bulk commodities to Europe because some GM
>crops are not approved for use there.
>
>REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
>
>--
>
>


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