Dive Brief:
- The European Union Friday gave the OK for the import of 10 new GMO crops in addition to two more types of cut flowers — the first GMO import approval to the EU in over a year following a review of its blocked approval system.
- The European Commission approved "10 new types of maize, soybeans, cotton, and oilseed rape as either human food or animal feed for 10 years," reports Reuters. The crops made by Monsanto, BASF, and Bayer CropScience will mostly serve a feed purpose. The EU also extended seven other crops already being used by 10 years.
- These imports join 58 GMO crops allowed in the European Union. This approval only applies to imports — only one GMO crop, Monsanto's maize MON810, is cultivated in Europe, in Spain and Portugal.
Dive Insight:
These approvals come after a proposal to change restrictions on GMO would let individual countries decide whether to import GMO crops despite the EU's blanket approval. This proposal has lit up both sides of the GMO debate.
The European Union member states recently got the power to ban GMO crops in their respective countries.