By Dr. Sue Mayer, Executive Director, GeneWatch UK

Publication date: May 2005

Summary
In May the journal Nature revealed that Syngenta had inadvertently produced and distributed a variety of GM maize, Bt 10, which did not have regulatory approval. Several hundred tonnes of the Bt10 maize was grown and distributed in the US between 2001 and 2004 and possibly exported elsewhere. It has emerged that the Bt10 also contains a gene that gives resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin. Yet Syngenta will not disclose the full details of how Bt10 has been genetically modified.

Publication date: April 2005

Summary
Swiss chemical giant Syngenta has admitted it sold hundreds of tonnes of an illegal variety of GM maize to farmers in the USA over the past four years. The illegal GM crop, called Bt10, was modified with a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which makes the crop produce its own pesticide to kill insects.