Due to insufficient data, it is currently impossible to carry out a final evaluation of the size and distribution of profits in terms of business and economics which have been achieved by cultivating transgenic plants in developing and emerging countries. Studies which claim to be able to do this are not backed up scientifically and are based on unstable projections. Even the case studies from China and Brazil could not improve this situation: The studies published to date on the economic results of Bt cotton cultivation in China are, for instance, based on the data from just a few years and just a few hundred hectares (out of an overall acreage of 5.5 million hectares) and demonstrate enormous fluctuations; for Brazil, no publications at all exist on the cultivation results, only estimations.

9,000 to 10,000 broiler chickens per hour are converted into food products by Gudensberg-based producer Stolle, that is 480,000 broilers per week. From the beginning of May they will be fed without genetic engineering – guaranteed – with certification. [...] One of the group’s feed mills already uses exclusively grain and soy that are planted GM-free.

Germany should reconsider its policy of permitting farmers to grow maize with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and consider banning biotech crops, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday. Gabriel is the second minister to raise a change of GMO policy this week, following Farm Minister Ilse Aigner’s statement she may review permission to grow MON 810 GMO maize, developed by U.S. biotech group Monsanto Co..

The leading European potato starch companies AVEBE, Emsland-Stärke, and Lyckeby Industrial demand the use of innovative technologies in agriculture. According to the starch producers, genetically optimized starch potatoes like Amflora from BASF Plant Science are good examples for such innovations. Their request has been prompted by the recent EU Commission decision from November 20, 2008 to cut the subsidies for the production of starch potatoes

Germany wants European Union member states to have the power to block genetically-modified crops in their countries, Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer said on Wednesday. Currently the EU Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, takes the decision whether genetically modified organisms (GMO) are safe and has controversially approved several GMO crops for commercial farming. [...] ’I believe that the EU member states should be able to decide themselves whether they actually want cultivation in their areas,’ Seehofer said.

A temporary sales ban on GMO-giant Monsanto’s genetically modified MON810 maize was lifted after the company agreed to extra crop monitoring in Germany, German authorities anounced. Germany had in May this year imposed a temporary ban on commercial sales of MON810 citing concerns about safety of the maize.

Germany’s agriculture minister urged the European Union on Monday to suspend its approval procedure for new biotech crops and seeds, demanding governments undertake a wide-scale review of how genetically modified products can be used in Europe. ”This (system) should be stopped and we should check: can the procedures stay as they are,” Horst Seehofer said before EU farm ministers talks. He said that the current system, which has been criticized by several EU nations, is ”highly unsatisfactory.”

The German government on Wednesday agreed new draft rules for cultivation of genetically modified (GMO) crops, including a minimum buffer zone from conventional plantings. The cabinet approved a draft law from Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer for local German rules for cultivation of GMO crops which the European Union has already authorised. Under the rules, there must be a 150-metre gap between GMO crops and conventional crops to prevent cross-pollination. A 300-metre gap must be kept from fields with organic crops.

Genetically modified food products are not accepted by German consumers, according to a representative survey by Germanys leading institute on consumer research, GfK.

74.9% rejected the development and introduction of genetically modified foods as a matter of principle. At 6.7%, the number of protagonists was very low. 85.5% rejected animal products from animals which had been directly subjected to genetic modification, or indirectly affected by genetically modified feedstock.

A global report of Friends of the Earth shows that genetically modified (GM) crops have failed to address the main challenges facing farmers in most countries of the world. It notes that the 'second generation' GM farm crops has failed to appear. GM crops commercialised today have on the whole increased rather than decreased pesticide use, and do not yield more than conventional varieties. The environment has not benefited, and GM crops will become increasingly unsustainable over the medium to long term.