Saturday, April 6, 2019

Farmers rip up canola in France and Germany


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.