Try this one one for size:

France halts genetically modified corn

The French government on Saturday suspended the use of genetically modified corn crops in France while it awaits EU approval for a full ban.

The order formalized France's announcement Jan. 11 that it would suspend cultivation of Monsanto's MON810, the seed for the only type of genetically modified corn now allowed in the country.

I'm not a huge proponent of genetically modified corn, nor do I have anything in particular against it, but I can't help but think that an outright ban seems a bit harsh. Can't it be labeled genetically modified? Can't meat from livestock that were fed genetically modified corn also be labeled appropriately?

But maybe it all begins to make sense when you read this:

The European Food Safety Authority says genetically modified products do not constitute a risk to human health or the environment, but some EU governments — including Austria, France, Greece and Hungary — are wary of biotechnology.

Right. The people who ought to know whether it's safe say it is, and the government bans it anyway. Compare this with the cloned meat controversy in the US. In this instance, we have the government body saying that the suspect produce is okay, and some consumers are saying the won't have anything to do with it.

No outright ban. Yet.

Are there risks associated with genetically modifying the plants we eat? Of course there very well could be, but the scientific consensus so far is that nothing particularly risky is being done with corn and other foods that are being modified. But cloned meat and milk? This goes back to something I've been pointing out for some time now: a lot of people have no idea what cloning is, but that doesn't stop them from being scared of it.

The real downside here is that GM and cloning technologies that we have today can serve as the foundation for technologies that will one day provide us with food that is abundant and nutritious beyond anything we can even imagine today. I am confident that eventually we'll have nanotech-based replication machines that will allow a user to scoop dirt into one end and get a cheeseburger (or Caesar salad) out the other. Today's GM corn and cloned beef are very humble stepping stones in that direction. Well before we have the replicator, we are likely to see plants modified to yield significantly more food, of a better quality, and causing less damage to the environment. And we will see milk and meat grown in vats, much healthier than what we currently take from animals, and without the environmental damage or the ethical concerns of surrounding mistreating animals.

But we won't see any of these developments, or they will at least be much slower in arriving, if they are legislated out of existence before they can even happen.