Monsanto has abandoned its ambitious plans for a so-called “second generation GM crop” rather than accede to a request from European regulators for additional research and safety data. This is the first time a GM multinational has pulled two GM corn varieties from the regulatory and assessment process at the eleventh hour, after planning for a future income of several billion dollars per year from global sales.

The same company that brought us Agent Orange, DDT, and Bovine Growth Hormone, has informed the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that it no longer wishes to pursue its application for approval of GM maize LY038 and the stacked variety LY038 x MON810. Both of these varieties were designed to accelerate the growth rate of animals. Two letters were sent to EFSA from the Monsanto subsidiary company Renessen at the end of April this year confirming the withdrawal of its applications originally submitted in 2005 and 2006. The letters cite “decreased commercial value worldwide” and state that the high-lysene varieties “will no longer be a part of the Renessen business strategy in the near future.” There has been no announcement of these decisions on the Monsanto web site, and there are no mentions on EFSA or European Commission web sites either. In other words, there appears to be a conspiracy of silence involving both the applicants and the regulators.

The two letters sent to the EFSA in April requested the return of all dossier material (varietal characterization, experimental protocols, and test results) which was submitted with the applications for cultivation, animal feed and human food. The EFSA acceded to this request, making it impossible for any future independent researchers to analyze the Monsanto / Renessen data. Scientists who have followed these two applications are quite convinced that the “decisions to withdraw” have nothing to do with commercial considerations and everything to do with food safety. In other words, the varieties are too dangerous to be allowed onto the open market — although they would certainly have been approved by EFSA and most other European regulatory authorities had it not been for the diligence of independent scientists in New Zealand who subjected the application dossiers to very close scrutiny. In the absence of such scrutiny in the United States, the varieties were approved in 2005 for domestic cultivation, animal feed and human food.

Commenting for GM-Free Wales, Dr Brian John said: “It is the first time that a GM multinational has withdrawn a GM product (or two products) at the eleventh hour. It was insane in the first place to seek to pass GM maize crops containing Bt toxins and “growth enhancers” straight into the human food chain. In addition, EFSA and the other regulators have been quite irresponsible in the past in assuming that “stacked” events, hybridized from two GM lines, are harmless if the applicant says so, and if the separate lines have been independently approved. That is simply bad science, since it fails to address the likelihood of synergistic effects and even accumulating toxins in the food chain. Nonetheless, we applaud the fact that EFSA has asked Monsanto some hard questions in this case, having in the past demonstrated, over and again, that its GMO Panel is simply unfit for purpose. This represents progress.”

Perhaps the EFSA needs to be reminded of the words of Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications (referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) when he explained the company’s regulatory philosophy to Michael Pollan in 1998: “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA’s job.”

Well that’s fine then. Just be sure not to Google: FDA MONSANTO REVOLVING DOOR if you want to sleep soundly tonight.