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Swiss soiled seed prompts tolerance question

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, page 629 (1999)Cite this article

On July 1, the Swiss government's tolerance standard for genetic purity of food comes into effect. Switzerland is the first country in Europe to set a limit for genetic contamination, but current controversy over genetically contaminated corn seeds highlights the urgent EU-wide need for such a standard for crops.

In May, it was discovered by the Swiss Department of Agriculture (Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft; Bern) and the district president of Baden-Württemberg (Tübingen, Germany) that PioneerHi-Bred's (Des Moines, IA) nongenetically modified corn seed varieties, Ulla and Benicia, actually contained novel genes from a variety of corn genetically modified to be resistant to the corn borer, Bacillus thuringiensis.

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  1. Ingeborg Fürst is a freelance writer working in Munich.

    • Ingeborg Fürst
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Fürst, I. Swiss soiled seed prompts tolerance question. Nat Biotechnol 17, 629 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/10837

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