The French arm of US biotech giant Monsanto said on Friday it would continue experiments on genetically modified (GMO) crops in France despite a court ruling stopping some of its tests. France`s top court, the Council of State, last week cancelled two authorisations granted to Monsanto to grow test fields of its genetically modified Roundup Ready maize.

The court said Monsanto had not given precise enough details of where the field trials would take place. The annulment was welcomed by anti-GMO campaigners who said it showed experiments were held in secret and repeated calls for all trials in the country be halted. But Monsanto, an industry leader in genetically altering crops, said it would not prevent them to carry on their tests.

"We`ll continue our experiments but we might have to change a bit the way we ask for licences in the future," Yann Fichet, Monsanto France`s director of external relations told Reuters. The two cancelled licences were granted in 2004 to grow a certain type of GMO maize resistant to the Roundup insecticide for several years. One of the two licences was out-of-date. The other could have been used this year, Monsanto said.

The company, which submitted four additional testing requests this season concerning 17 sites and is waiting for an approval from the French farm ministry in the coming days, said it had always provided all details concerning its experiments. "Every year we provide the farm ministry an exact list and detailed maps of the experiments we intend to do," Fichet said.

FRENCH TESTING RECONSIDERED
Fichet nevertheless admitted that for licences lasting several years -- as it was the case for the licences cancelled -- the company does not hand the list of locations every year to the French genetic engineering commission, as the Council of State says it is requested under the French law. "We don`t want to do so because then our experiments are destroyed by the (GMO) opponents," he said.

Opposition to GMO crops has been virulent for years in France where a large majority of the population says it will refuse to eat GM foods as long as it is not proven they are safe for human consumption in the long run. Yet, France applies EU legislation that permits some GMO maize to be grown and experiments on several types of GM crops to be carried on under precise rules and after approbation.

This infuriates opponents including those who regularly destroy field experiments, claiming the tests lead to irreversible contamination of conventional plants. Half of Monsanto`s experiments in France are destroyed each year, Fichet said.

Last week France`s maize growers group AGPM said many farmers who this year had planted up to 5,000 hectares of GMO crops for commercial sale, 10 times the area sown in 2005, had asked to remain anonymous to avoid attacks on their crops. "Transparency today is used to destroy our work. This is unacceptable," Fichet said. "It certainly makes us think deeply about our experiments in France."
by Sybille de La Hamaide
(Planet Ark, 05/05/2006)
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36239/story.htm