France decided Friday to invoke an EU safeguard procedure to bar a strain of genetically-modified corn after a watchdog said it had doubts about the product, the prime minister's office said.
The government was invoking the procedure "until European authorities re-evaluate the authorisation on commercialisation" of the product, the prime minister's office said in a statement.
It had decided to act on the "principle of precaution" after the watchdog authority's findings, which have been controversial even among scientists who were involved in the authority's report, it added.
The government also announced it was investing 45 million euros (66 million dollars) in vegetable biotechnology, an eight-fold increase over the current budget.
US agricultural giant Monsanto, which produces the strain, has 15 days to present its defence.
French anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove -- who has been convicted of ripping up GM crops in southern France -- had launched a hunger strike last week to press for a year-long ban on genetically modified crops.
After France's decision on Friday, he said he would stop his hunger strike.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday he was working with Prime Minister Francois Fillon towards a decision on suspending the Monsanto 810 maize.
France's Provisional High Authority on GM Organisms said Wednesday it had "serious doubts" as to the safety of Mon 810, the only GM crop grown in France.
It pointed to what it described as "a certain number of new scientific facts relating to a negative impact on flora and fauna."
Chairman Jean-Francois Le Grand, who also holds a seat in the Senate, said evidence had emerged that Mon 810 had an effect on insects, a species of earthworm and micro-organisms.
There was also concern that wind-borne pollen from Mon 810 could travel much further than previously thought -- perhaps as much as hundreds of miles (kilometres), said Le Grand.
In a surprise development however, 12 of the 15 scientists who compiled the authority's report issued a statement Thursday complaining that Le Grand had misrepresented their findings.
They said their initial report had not used the words "serious doubts" or "negative" concerning the latest evidence on GM crops.
They also complained they had not been allowed time to carry out a "fuller expertise" of Mon 810.
GM crops are a fiercely contested question in Europe, pitting agribusiness corporations against a powerful green lobby.
On its website, Monsanto Co. says Mon 810 was rigorously assessed for safety by authorities before being put on the market in 1997, and extensively studied by independent scientific experts.
Under European Union laws, a member state can invoke a safeguard clause, enabling it to bar a GM crop that has otherwise been given EU-wide authorisation, provided it has scientific evidence to back this decision.
Six other EU members have already invoked this clause.
The maize, marketed as YieldGard, has been engineered to produce a naturally-occurring toxin, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), that kills a pest called the corn borer.
That saves farmers money they would otherwise have spent on spraying insecticides.
.gif)
