Capte Town, South Africa
January 31, 2005

Source: Cape Times via Agnet Jan. 31/05

The government has, according to this story, turned down an application by multi-national Dow Agrosciences to test its genetically modified (GM) maize in South Africa.

The anti-GM lobby group African Centre for Biosafety, which objected to the application, was cited as welcoming the decision, saying it was "outrageous" that a foreign company had tried to use SA as a "guinea pig" to test its products for release in Europe.

The story says that one of the reasons the application was turned down was because of the potential impact of the pest-resistant GM maize on non-target organisms.

Dow had said in papers lodged to support its application that the reason it wanted to run field trials of GM maize in South Africa was to "gather information to substantiate European Union registrations".

The European Commission is to consider Dow's application for safety approval of its GM maize, TC1507, this year.