It is a blow on the pro-GMO position of the European Commission. The European Union member countries rejected, on Monday March 2 in Brussels, the lifting of the prohibition on the culture of genetically modified corn (MON810) by the American firm Monsanto, being forced in Austria and Hungary. The vote occurred just as EC executives are at the point of recommending a similar lifting of the safeguard clause on the MON810 adopted in France.

At a meeting of the ministers of environment, 22 out of the 27 States of the European Union refused to follow the recommendation of the Commission. Only the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia supported it. The authorization for the culture of MON810 expires in 2009.

The rejection vote “translates to the loss of confidence of an increasingly significant number of member states in the judgment of the European commission on the matter of GMO.”

There have been evidences around the globe that genetically-modified corn is potentially toxic. Greenpeace demands immediate market withdrawal of GMO crops and moratorium on GMO approvals.

GMO maize is being farmed for feed use. It has been discovered, though, that animals fed with GMO corn developed leukemia, high blood pressure, ailments of the kidney and liver, allergies to infection, increased blood sugar levels, and diseases – all toxic reactions to GMO. GMO feed-fed animals, therefore, are not fit for human consumption.

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Via Lloyd’s