Public opposition to agricultural biotechnology continued to increase significantly in 2012 mostly due to campaigns run by NGOs via print and visual media. A number of pseudo- science documents were published by the media.
The Biosafety Law went into effect on September 26, 2010. Since the publication of the Law, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MinFAL) established an independent Biosafety Board consisting of mostly bureaucrats and some academicians. To date, importers of agricultural products
have submitted applications for the approval of 22 corn, 3 soybean, 3 canola, one sugar beet and one potato starch transgenic events (all currently approved in the EU). However, of these events, the Board has approved usage for only 3 soybean and 16 corn events for feed use.
In September 2011, the Biosafety Board adopted the EU 0.1% threshold for unapproved events in feed material.
