Farmers in
France have ripped up about 18,000 hectares of crops contaminated with Canadian
canola genes and German farmers have destroyed about 2,500 to 3,000 hectares.
Those fields
will not grow rapeseed for another year so farmers can destroy any volunteer
plants that emerge.
Bayer, which
supplied the seed, said it doesn’t know how Canadian canola genes contaminated
their seed that was multiplied in a GMO-free zone in Argentina.
France has a ban
on GMO canola it bases on environmental concerns.
A spokeswoman
for Bayer, which had previously estimated around 8,000 hectares of rapeseed
would be lost in France, said the area had reached 18,000 hectares (about
44,500 acres) after further precautionary removals of crops, for example when
there were doubts over traceability of seeds.
The area of
rapeseed destroyed in Germany was in line with initial expectations at
2,500-3,000 hectares, she said.
The destruction
was carried out before the flowering of crops.
The affected
seed was sold under the Dekalb brand, developed by U.S. group Monsanto which
was acquired by Bayer last year.
Bayer has
offered compensation.
