Cape Town - South African farmers, and by extension farmers across Africa, are a step closer to a court decision on whether or not they can commercially grow controversy-ridden genetically modified (GM) maize.
After five years of protracted legal proceedings, dates for the court hearing have finally been set for Tuesday and Wednesday in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
In 2017, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) lodged legal proceedings with the high court to review and overturn the approval of Monsanto/Bayer’s genetically modified drought-tolerant maize MON 86470 for commercial cultivation in South Africa.
The approval had come from the SA Executive Council: GMO Act, the GMO Appeal Board, and then agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister.
The ACB argued there was insufficient data to demonstrate the claimed drought-tolerant benefit.
An ACB statement said: “The court case follows many years of campaigning and advocacy work by the ACB, other organisations, and members of the public.
“They fiercely challenged Monsanto’s unproven claimed benefits of drought tolerance, going back to 2007, when the field trials involving the drought-tolerant trait first commenced.”
ACB said this trait was ostensibly to be offered to small-scale farmers via the Gates-funded Water Efficient Maize for Africa (Wema) project, targeting several African countries.
When the trait was approved for commercial cultivation by the executive council, the ACB lodged an appeal against the decision.
ACB director Mariam Mayet said: “Now, more than a year after legal proceedings closed and heads of argument were filed, we finally have our day in court. The best outcome anticipated by the ACB would be if the judgment leads to a reversal of the decision to approve the commercial cultivation of this trait, which would likely significantly hamper the continued push of these failed GM varieties on African countries too.”
The ACB’s 2017 appeal was unsuccessful and the approval for commercial release was confirmed prompting the ACB to approach the high court for a review, supported by Legal Aid SA.
Mayet said: “Since then, the commercial cultivation has been on hold, which in itself is a huge victory for the ACB, civil society, farmer networks, and consumers.
“Curiously, Monsanto sought the approval for the commercial growing of a triple stacked GM maize variety that included the contested trait, combined with Monsanto’s ancient and failed herbicide tolerance and insecticidal traits, respectively ( MON89034 and NK603).
“Even more curiously, this application was rejected by the very same South African biosafety authorities that had approved the single trait.”
The result of Bayer having merged with Monsanto to become the world’s largest supplier by sales of both seeds and pesticides has meant that Bayer also became a respondent in the ongoing review.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za