Contamination of Honey with GM Pollen

Craig Holdrege

From In Context #26 (Fall, 2011) | View article as PDF

In September 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on a case involving the contamination of honey with pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn. A beekeeper in Germany who kept bees in the vicinity of research plots that were grown with Monsanto’s Bt corn, which is designed to kill the larvae of certain moths, had his honey and pollen (which was sold as a food supplement) tested, and small amounts of Bt pollen were found in some of the samples. He considered his product “unsuitable for marketing and for consumption” (Court of Justice of the European Union Press Release No. 79/11). As a result, this beekeeper and four fellow beekeepers started legal proceedings against the state of Bavaria, which owned the land upon which the corn was grown. The Bavarian court then sought the judgment of the EU Court of Justice.

In its ruling the EU court states that the GM pollen must be considered as an ingredient of the honey, regardless of whether it is an intended or unintended ingredient. Therefore, honey or pollen supplements containing GM ingredients would be subject to a special safety and approval process stipulated for any food product in the EU that contains ingredients produced from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). All foods containing GM products must be labeled in the EU, in contrast to the United States, where there is no labeling. It would be unlawful for a beekeeper in the EU to sell honey containing GM pollen — even the smallest amounts — without having gone through the complex safety and approval process.

Most beekeepers will not want to go through this process, knowing that consumers in Europe generally do not want to consume food containing products from GMOs. But they should have other recourse. Beekeepers who find their honey contaminated and can therefore no longer sell it, can take a legal route to receive compensation from the farmers who grow the GM crop and the company that produces the genetically modified crops. In other words, Monsanto will have to pay beekeepers for their losses due to the contaminated honey.

Another consequence is that the large amounts of honey imported from Argentina, Canada and other countries where GM crops are grown, will be subjected to new scrutiny. The waves from this ruling will ripple far beyond the European Union.