BRUSSELS — A proposal that Europe's top environment official made last month, to ban the planting of a genetically modified corn strain, sets up a bitter war within the European Union, where politicians have done their best to dance around the issue.
She's come up with three different strains of modified corn, each one with a different method of cellulose breakdown, each copied from a different microorganism.
But along the way it must avoid dumb mistakes like the accidental sale announced earlier this year of a strain of modified corn that didn't have regulatory approval.
A strain of genetically modified corn that produces its own insecticide, known as Bt, does not appear to harm black swallowtail butterflies in the wild, according to a report published today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The taco incident, set off after Genetic ID fingered a strain of genetically modified corn in testing performed for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, has only served to heighten the vitriol.
Germany, meanwhile, went so far as to ban a strain of genetically modified corn from Monsanto, declaring it "a danger to the environment".
A report by Cornucopia, "Cereal Crimes," revealed that its 365 Corn Flakes line contained genetically modified corn.
For those looking to mitigate the potential impact of genetically modified corn, however, the new study suggests that there may be strains of Bt corn that have little or no impact on nonpest species, said Dr. Arthur Zangerl, another author of the new study.
Thus, bee pollen, which consisted of packed or modified corn pollen, had a better free radical scavenging activity than the natural form of corn pollen.
"Which is the genetically modified corn?" August 26 , 2015
