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MON863 - What's It All About?

Jeanette Fitzsimons MP
Thursday, 19 Apr 2007 | Factsheet
Contact: Jeanette Fitzsimons MP
Tags: Food, Genetic Engineering, Forestry

  1. MON863 is a GE corn produced by Monsanto.

  2. It has been genetically engineered to produce the insecticide produced by the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (so it's referred to as a Bt corn.

  3. FSANZ is the joint Australia New Zealand authority that gives approval for the use or sale of foods and ingredients in New Zealand.

  4. Monsanto applied to FSANZ in 2003 for approval to sell MON863 in New Zealand. It did not supply results of all studies done on the effects of MON863.
  5. FSANZ approved MON863 for human and animal consumption in New Zealand in April 2004.

  6. It was similarly approved in Europe in April 2004.

  7. It is likely that MON863 is in our food chain already used as such things as corn starch, corn syrup, cereals and desert mixes. However, our labelling laws make it impossible to be certain which foods contain it and which don't.

  8. In October 2003 a French science agency raised concerns about MON863. The concerns were relayed to the European Food Safety Authority, but the Authority decided to keep these secret.

  9. In April 2004 French newspaper Le Monde alerted the world to the secret concerns that MON863 may be harmful after results of a rat-feeding study suggested some damage to the animals' kidneys and/or livers.

  10. The Greens raised this concern with FSANZ and in the House in September 2004.

  11. FSANZ response was to seek further information from Monsanto.

  12. Monsanto provided the raw data but said it was commercially sensitive so FSANZ returned it without making a copy, despite holding it for 10 days, and so prevented it from being released to independent scientists for their assessment.

  13. Following a legal challenge from Greenpeace in Europe, a German court ordered Monsanto to release the raw data of the rat feeding study that had been kept from the public.

  14. Subsequently, a team of genetic specialists in France assessed the raw data and came to different conclusions about the effect of MON863 on the rats.

  15. In March this year the scientists published the results of their reassessment of the data. They said that there were signs of damage to the rats' organs and that it could NOT be concluded that this GE corn was safe to eat contrary to the conclusions drawn by Monsanto, EFSA and FSANZ.

  16. Since then the Green Party has made several calls to FSANZ for it to withdraw approval for MON863 till an independent assessment of the test results can be carried out. The Greens believe that the Food Standards Authority should not just rely on information provided by applicant companies, but instead should contract independent studies to ensure food safety.

  17. FSANZ has said it will review the French scientists' findings, but so far has refused to suspend its approvals of MON863.

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