Implications for GMO-cultivation and monitoring

Broadening the GMO risk assessment in the EU for genome editing technologies in agriculture

Genome editing techniques, especially the CRISPR/Cas technology, increase the possibilities and the speed of altering genetic material in organisms. So-called genome editing is increasingly being used to achie...

Authors: Katharina Kawall, Janet Cotter and Christoph Then

Stacked genetically modified soybean harboring herbicide resistance and insecticide rCry1Ac shows strong defense and redox homeostasis disturbance after glyphosate-based herbicide application

World agricultural production of genetically modified (GM) products, in particular, the combination of different traits/genes in the same plant has been a trend over the last decade. There have been concerns r...

Authors: Caroline Bedin Zanatta, Rafael Fonseca Benevenuto, Rubens Onofre Nodari and Sarah Zanon Agapito-Tenfen

Response to Kruse-Plass et al. (2017) regarding the risk to non-target lepidopteran larvae exposed to pollen from one or more of three Bt maize events (MON810, Bt11 and 1507)

We respond to the paper of Kruse-Plass et al. (Environ Sci Eur 29:12, 2017), published in this journal, regarding the risk to non-target lepidopteran larvae exposed to pollen from one or more of three Bt maize ev...

Authors: Joe N. Perry, Paolo Barberi, Detlef Bartsch, A. N. E. Birch, Achim Gathmann, Jozsef Kiss, Barbara Manachini, Marco Nuti, Stefan Rauschen, Joachim Schiemann, Mechthild Schuppener, Jeremy Sweet, Christoph C. Tebbe and Fabio Veronesi

Reply to the EFSA (2016) on the relevance of recent publications (Hofmann et al. 2014, 2016) on environmental risk assessment and management of Bt-maize events (MON810, Bt11 and 1507)

In this commentary, we respond to a report of the EFSA GMO Panel (EFSA EFSA Supp Publ, 1) that criticises the outcomes of two studies published in this journal (Hofmann et al. Environ Sci Eur 26: 24, 2; Environ S...

Authors: Maren Kruse-Plass, Frieder Hofmann, Ulrike Kuhn, Mathias Otto, Ulrich Schlechtriemen, Boris Schröder, Rudolf Vögel and Werner Wosniok

Are Limits of Concern a useful concept to improve the environmental risk assessment of GM plants?

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has introduced a concept for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) plants which foresees the definition of ecological threshold values definin...

Authors: Marion Dolezel, Marianne Miklau, Andreas Heissenberger and Wolfram Reichenbecher

Transcriptome and metabolome analysis of liver and kidneys of rats chronically fed NK603 Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize

A previous 2-year rat feeding trial assessing potential toxicity of NK603 Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize revealed blood and urine biochemical changes indicative of liver and kidney pathology. In a...

Authors: Robin Mesnage, Matthew Arno, Gilles-Eric Séralini and Michael N. Antoniou

Herbicide resistance and biodiversity: agronomic and environmental aspects of genetically modified herbicide-resistant plants

Farmland biodiversity is an important characteristic when assessing sustainability of agricultural practices and is of major international concern. Scientific data indicate that agricultural intensification an...

Authors: Gesine Schütte, Michael Eckerstorfer, Valentina Rastelli, Wolfram Reichenbecher, Sara Restrepo-Vassalli, Marja Ruohonen-Lehto, Anne-Gabrielle Wuest Saucy and Martha Mertens

Possible health impacts of Bt toxins and residues from spraying with complementary herbicides in genetically engineered soybeans and risk assessment as performed by the European Food Safety Authority EFSA

MON89788 was the first genetically engineered soybean worldwide to express a Bt toxin. Under the brand name Intacta, Monsanto subsequently engineered a stacked trait soybean using MON89788 and MON87701—this stack...

Authors: Christoph Then and Andreas Bauer-Panskus

The Seralini affair: degeneration of Science to Re-Science?

A paper reporting findings relevant to safety of the genetically modified (GM) maize NK603 and the herbicide Roundup (Séralini et al., Food Chem Toxicol. 50:4221–4231, 2012) was retracted against the wishes of...

Authors: John Fagan, Terje Traavik and Thomas Bøhn

Deconstructing Indian cotton: weather, yields, and suicides

Cotton with coevolving pests has been grown in India more than 5000 years. Hybrid cotton was introduced in the 1970s with increases in fertilizer and in insecticide use against pink bollworm that caused outbre...

Authors: Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Luigi Ponti, Hans R Herren, Johann Baumgärtner and Peter E Kenmore

No scientific consensus on GMO safety

A broad community of independent scientific researchers and scholars challenges recent claims of a consensus over the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the following joint statement, the clai...

Authors: Angelika Hilbeck, Rosa Binimelis, Nicolas Defarge, Ricarda Steinbrecher, András Székács, Fern Wickson, Michael Antoniou, Philip L Bereano, Ethel Ann Clark, Michael Hansen, Eva Novotny, Jack Heinemann, Hartmut Meyer, Vandana Shiva and Brian Wynne

Maize pollen deposition in relation to distance from the nearest pollen source under common cultivation - results of 10 years of monitoring (2001 to 2010)

Information on pollen dispersal is essential for the risk assessment and management of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as Bt maize. We analyzed data on maize pollen deposition at 216 sites in German...

Authors: Frieder Hofmann, Mathias Otto and Werner Wosniok

Rat feeding studies with genetically modified maize - a comparative evaluation of applied methods and risk assessment standards

A 2-year rat feeding study with genetically modified NK603 maize sparked an international scientific and public debate as well as policy responses by the European Commission. The European Food Safety Authority...

Authors: Hartmut Meyer and Angelika Hilbeck

Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pesticide use in the U.S. -- the first sixteen years

Genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant crops have been remarkable commercial successes in the United States. Few independent studies have calculated their impacts on pesticide use per...

Authors: Charles M Benbrook

Surveying the occurrence of subspontaneous glyphosate-tolerant genetically engineered Brassica napus L. (Brassicaceae) along Swiss railways

Railway tracks represent a highly interlinked habitat with numerous possibilities for accidental entry of oilseed rape due to seed spill during transportation. Moreover, glyphosate is regularly employed to con...

Authors: Nicola Schoenenberger and Luigi D’Andrea

Assessment of regional capabilities for agricultural coexistence with genetically modified maize

The coexistence of agricultural production with and without the use of genetically modified (GV) crops is supposed to be made possible in Germany by regulations, which include minimal distances of GV-fields to...

Authors: Angelika Wurbs, Claudia Bethwell and Ulrich Stachow

A controversy re-visited: Is the coccinellid Adalia bipunctata adversely affected by Bt toxins?

In 2008/2009, Schmidt and colleagues published a study reporting lethal effects of the microbial Bt toxins Cry1Ab and Cry3Bb on the coccinellid biological control organisms Adalia bipunctata. Based on this study,...

Authors: Angelika Hilbeck, Joanna M McMillan, Matthias Meier, Anna Humbel, Juanita Schläpfer-Miller and Miluse Trtikova

Underlying reasons of the controversy over adverse effects of Bt toxins on lady beetle and lacewing larvae

We outline important underlying reasons that fuel the decades-long controversy over adverse effects of Bt toxins expressed in genetically modified plants on beneficial, nontarget organisms. Inconsistent evalua...

Authors: Angelika Hilbeck, Matthias Meier and Miluse Trtikova

Overview of principles and implementations to deal with spatial issues in monitoring environmental effects of genetically modified organisms

The approval of genetically modified organisms [GMO] for deliberate release and placing on the market requires GMO environmental risk assessment [ERA] and GMO environmental monitoring [EM]. Both GMO ERA and GM...

Authors: Winfried Schröder and Gunther Schmidt

Scrutinizing the current practice of the environmental risk assessment of GM maize applications for cultivation in the EU

The prevailing controversies on the potential environmental risks of genetically modified organisms [GMOs] still fuel ongoing discussions among European Union [EU] member states, risk assessors, applicants and...

Authors: Marion Dolezel, Marianne Miklau, Angelika Hilbeck, Mathias Otto, Michael Eckerstorfer, Andreas Heissenberger, Beatrix Tappeser and Helmut Gaugitsch

Legal implications of the step-by-step principle

The 'step-by step' principle was introduced into the European Union legislation on genetically modified organisms as a means to cope with uncertainty about environmental risks from the release of genetically m...

Authors: Caroline von Kries and Gerd Winter

European Union and German law on co-existence: Individualisation of a systemic problem

Co-existence of the cultivation of genetically modified and non-genetically modified crops is commonly regarded as a suitable way out of the clash of perceptions of environmental or health risks of genetically...

Authors: Gerd Winter and Sarah Stoppe-Ramadan

Response to the criticism by Taube et al. in ESE 23:1, 2011, on the booklet "Green Genetic Engineering" published by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

The authors of the DFG booklet "Green Genetic Engineering" respond to the criticism by Taube et al. in Environmental Sciences Europe 2011, 23:1. The broad criticism on current cropping systems in agriculture is r...

Authors: Inge Broer, Christian Jung, Frank Ordon, Matin Qaim, Barbara Reinhold-Hurek, Uwe Sonnewald and Andreas von Tiedemann

Environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants - concepts and controversies

In Europe, the EU Directive 2001/18/EC lays out the main provisions of environmental risk assessment (ERA) of genetically modified (GM) organisms that are interpreted very differently by different stakeholders...

Authors: Angelika Hilbeck, Matthias Meier, Jörg Römbke, Stephan Jänsch, Hanka Teichmann and Beatrix Tappeser

Setup, efforts and practical experiences of a monitoring program for genetically modified plants - an Austrian case study for oilseed rape and maize

According to the Directive 2001/18/EC, genetically modified plants [GMPs] have to be monitored for unintended ecological impacts during their release. Detrimental effects on the biodiversity of agro-ecosystems...

Authors: Kathrin Pascher, Dietmar Moser, Stefan Dullinger, Leopold Sachslehner, Patrick Gros, Norbert Sauberer, Andreas Traxler, Georg Grabherr and Thomas Frank

Genetically modified crops safety assessments: present limits and possible improvements

We reviewed 19 studies of mammals fed with commercialized genetically modified soybean and maize which represent, per trait and plant, more than 80% of all environmental genetically modified organisms (GMOs) c...

Authors: Gilles-Eric Séralini, Robin Mesnage, Emilie Clair, Steeve Gress, Joël Spiroux de Vendômois and Dominique Cellier

A modeling assessment of geneflow in smallholder agriculture in West Africa

Small-scale agriculture is an important issue for food security in Africa. In the context of Genetically Modified Organisms, approaches to quantify geneflow in small-scale systems are widely unexplored. We aim...

Authors: Denis Worlanyo Aheto, Hauke Reuter and Broder Breckling

A case study of GM maize gene flow in South Africa

South Africa has been growing first-generation commercial genetically modified (GM) maize since 1997. Despite a requirement for non-GM food, especially for export, there is no system for coexistence of GM and ...

Authors: Chris Viljoen and Lukeshni Chetty

Systemic risks of genetically modified crops: the need for new approaches to risk assessment

Since more than 25 years, public dialogues, expert consultations and scientific publications have concluded that a comprehensive assessment of the implications of genetic engineering in agriculture and food pr...

Authors: Hartmut Meyer

Cultivation of GMO in Germany: support of monitoring and coexistence issues by WebGIS technology

In Germany, apart from the Amflora potato licensed for cultivation since March 2010, Bt-maize MON810 is the only genetically modified organisms (GMO) licensed for commercial cultivation (about 3,000 ha in 2008...

Authors: Lukas Kleppin, Gunther Schmidt and Winfried Schröder

From risk assessment to in-context trajectory evaluation - GMOs and their social implications

Over the past 20 years, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have raised enormous expectations, passionate political controversies and an ongoing debate on how these technologies should be assessed. Current r...

Authors: Vincenzo Pavone, Joanna Goven and Riccardo Guarino

Implications of GMO cultivation and monitoring-series

Authors: Gunther Schmidt and Winfried Schröder

The booklet "Genetically modified crops" published from the German Research Foundation, does not meet the given claim

In December 2009 the German Research Foundation published the booklet "Grüne Gentechnik" (Genetically modified crops) claiming to give a scientifically well balanced information about GMO's in agriculture. In ...

Authors: Friedhelm Taube, Michael Krawinkel, Andreas Susenbeth and Werner Theobald