High Court Decision on Gm ‘bogus’ Drought Tolerant Maize – Significant Blow to Advancement of Environmental Law in Gmo Decision Making
On 27 June 2023, Justice Tolmay handed down her judgment on the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)’s application to review the decisions of South Africa’s Executive Council (EC): Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act, the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which approved Monsanto/Bayer’s genetically modified (GM) drought-tolerant (DT) maize variety MON 86470 for commercial cultivation in South Africa (SA).
According to the ACB, these decision-making bodies merely rubber-stamped Monsanto’s application for authorisation, uncritically accepting its evidence that the GMO poses no threat to human health or the environment and ignoring the contrary expert evidence tendered by ACB’s experts.
In this regard, the ACB contends that the EC had failed to evaluate and engage critically with the lack of evidence of claimed drought tolerance, as well as the information furnished by Monsanto, and conduct a rigorous scientific assessment when it was under a legal duty to do so.