Belgium refuses licence for Aventis GMO crop test
Date: 30-Apr-02
Country: BELGIUM
The requested test concerned herbicide resistant oilseed rape.
Health Minister Magda Aelvoet told a news conference there was too large a risk of the genetically modified crops spreading into the environment.
"A recent European Environmental Agency report states that pollen from oilseed can be transported by bees over a distance of four kilometres and survive several days," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
"The chance of transgenetic plants 'escaping' is therefore very real," it added.
The Franco-German drugs company did however obtain a licence to experiment with insect-resistant maize in a greenhouse on one Belgian site to evaluate new insect-tolerant corn lines.
Two other field experiments - with viral disease resistant sugar beet and herbicide resistant chicory - by other companies were also approved.
A request for experiments with fungal disease resistant apple trees by a Dutch company was refused.