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Article: A moral maze: farming.(genetically-engineered corn, developed by the Swiss company Ciba, has been approved in various countries including the United States but not in the European Union, leading to the question of whether the EU will import American corn)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 14, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BIOTECHNOLOGY may yet revolutionise the world of farming. It may turn many more scientists into millionaires. But some laymen still think of it as a dangerous attempt by people to manipulate the fabric of nature. The latest illustration of this fear concerns a type of genetically engineered maize devised by Ciba, a Swiss chemicals and pharmaceuticals firm.
The new maize contains a gene from a widespread soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, which makes it resistant to the European corn borer, an insect pest which damages millions of hectares of the crop each year. It has been approved by regulators in a number of countries, including America, Canada and Japan. But ...