Credit: © Richard Maw/In-Focus

A research and monitoring program on genetically modified crops in Germany has been cancelled. In an effort to help public acceptance of GM foods, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had outlined plans last June to finance more risk assessment research and begin a voluntary moratorium of GM crops for the industry, following the government's ban of Novartis Seeds' Bt maize (Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 375, 2000). But in a letter dated 26 January, Walter Steinmeier, who heads the chancellor's office, withdrew the funding for this program—something Gerd Spelsberg of the German Consumers' Organization (Bundesverband der Verbraucherinitiativen) feels will be detrimental to public perception of plant biotechnology. Currently about 13 transgenic crops are waiting for approval by the Bundessortenamt, Germany's body for approving plant varieties.