A US appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that the USDA’s January 2011 deregulation of Monsanto/Forage Genetics’ genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready alfalfa was legal. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on May 17th that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) had correctly concluded that Roundup Ready alfalfa was not a “plant pest” under the Plant Protection Act (PPA). The activist group, the Center for Food Safety (CFS), and ...

The planting of genetically modified maize has jumped by around 20% this year in Spain to 116,306 ha, the Ministry of Agriculture reveals. That equates to some 30% of the entire maize area in the country, Spanish biotechnology association Fundación Antama notes. It is also the second consecutive year of a major rise in such plantings after the area of GM maize had flattened out at just over 75,000 ha for the four previous years (Agrow No 626, p 11). The association further notes that its ...

Paraguayan authorities have granted exceptional use import approval for 60,000 bags of two Monsanto genetically modified cotton products. The plant health and seed quality service, the Senave, has issued the approvals for Monsanto’s glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready (MON1445) and its stacked insect-resistant and glyphosate-tolerant Bollgard Roundup Ready (MON1445xMON531) cotton through Resolution 244. It further approves “the sale of national seeds as common seed in cases of exceedance of ...

A US appeals court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that the USDA’s January 2011 deregulation of Monsanto/Forage Genetics’ genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready alfalfa was legal. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on May 17th that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) had correctly concluded that Roundup Ready alfalfa was not a “plant pest” under the Plant Protection Act (PPA). The activist group, the Center for Food Safety (CFS), and ...

Monsanto has suffered yet another setback in its legal dispute to charge for use of its genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready soybeans in Brazil. Four magistrates of the High Court of Justice, the STJ, unanimously recognised earlier judgements that Monsanto’s patent registered in August 1990 had expired. The company requested a “term correction” to its patent until 2014 (Agrow No 659, p 2). Mato Grosso state farmers’ union, the Famato, leader Rui Prado welcomes the ruling. ...

The Brazilian technical commission for biosafety, the CTNBio, has voted by majority to confirm the approval of Monsanto’s genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready 2 (NK603) maize. The move came in response to the consumer protection group, the Fórum Nacional de Entidades Civis de Defesa do Consumidor, which called for the product’s re-evaluation and the suspension of its commercialisation and use. That followed the findings of a 2012 French study that claimed the maize caused ...

Argentina has authorised the commercial planting of BASF’s and the Brazilian agricultural research corporation, the Embrapa’s, imidazolinone herbicide-tolerant (CV127) Cultivance soybeans. The Ministry of Agriculture granted the approval to BASF through Resolution 1109/2013. The companies aim nationwide launch of the soybeans in 2015, pending import approvals in key export markets, BASF told Agrow. No brand name has yet been adopted, but all products will carry the initials CV. The Embrapa and ...