From: woodrow anselen 
Subject: RE: SNET: Fantasy - The Starlink Disaster
Date: 27 Feb 2001 22:50:52 -0500
To: snetnews@topica.com

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Thats a lot to read on an empty stomach


> [Original Message]
> From: Steve Wingate 
> To: ; SNETNEWS ; IUFO

> Date: 2/27/01 7:54:44 PM
> Subject: SNET: Fantasy - The Starlink Disaster
>
> ->  SNETNEWS  Mailing List
> 
> The GM Food Segregation 
> (This is a very interesting article. --SW)
> 
>                  Fantasy - The Starlink Disaster
>                                 
http://www.purefood.org/gefood/genefoodseg.cfm
>                                                     2-27-1
> 
> 
>                               Just about everybody ignored the safety
rules on a kind
>                               of biotech corn called Starlink. Luckily,
no one died from
>                               eating it. But what if someone had? by
Brian 0'Reilly 
>                                 
>                               For anyone in the business of growing corn,
one of the
>                               biggest frustrations of the job is a brown
inchworm-like
>                               creature that spends most of the summer and
fall
>                               munching and tunneling through the corn,
only to emerge
>                               as a moth that flies off to spawn a lot
more inchworms.
>                               Like many adolescents, corn borers can be
enormously
>                               destructive. Depending on when in the
growing season
>                               they arrive, they can damage arteries that
carry moisture
>                               to corn, or even cause the entire ear to
fall off before
>                               harvest. The borer costs American farmers
and their $20
>                               billion corn crop upwards of $1 billion a
year, if you count
>                               diminished yields plus the price of
pesticides and other
>                               measures needed to keep the borer at bay. 
>                                 
>                               So in 1995, when scientists produced an
early variety of
>                               genetically modified corn that poisoned the
borer shortly
>                               after its first cornstalk casserole,
farmers fairly jumped for
>                               joy. But last summer, right in the middle
of the harvest,
>                               things got messy. Plant Genetics Systems, a
company
>                               now owned by Aventis, a giant European
>                               pharmaceuticals firm, had developed another
>                               borer-killing gene that it called Starlink.
However, the
>                               toxin that Starlink produced in the corn
plant resembled a
>                               substance that triggers violent allergies
in some people.
>                               When federal regulators threatened to ban
Starlink corn
>                               until its safety in humans could be
established, the
>                               developers thought they had a better idea.
In effect, they
>                               promised to sell Starlink seed only to
farmers using it for
>                               feed corn; in turn, the farmers would agree
not to sell the
>                               seed to anyone who would put it in human
food. Okay,
>                               said the feds. But be careful. 
>                                 
>                               Well, guess what? Almost everybody involved
screwed
>                               up. Even though Starlink was on the market
for just three
>                               years-and made up just 0.5% of the 80
million acres of
>                               corn planted in the U.S. last year-it began
showing up in
>                               all sorts of places it didn't belong,
including tacos, corn
>                               chips, breweries, and muffin mix. The
promises made by
>                               Starlink's inventors proved worthless,
falling prey to
>                               managerial inattention, corporate mergers,
blind faith,
>                               misplaced hope, woeful ignorance, political
activism, and
>                               probably greedy farmers too, if you can
imagine such a
>                               thing. 
>                                 
>                               Any batch of core destined for human
consumption must
>                               now be ground up and tested for the
StarLink gene. 
>                                 
>                               The episode hardly qualifies as a disaster,
since no one
>                               seems to have gotten seriously ill from
eating Starlink
>                               corn. Howard Buffett, son of Warren and a
farmer near
>                               Decatur, Ill., even sees a bright side to
it; he says
>                               Starlink has revealed the shortcomings of
federal
>                               oversight and has pointed up the inability
of the
>                               grain-handling industry to segregate subtly
different
>                               products. Still, Starlink has caused no end
of hassles for
>                               farmers, grain-elevator operators,
railroads, and food
>                               processors. Neil Harl, an agricultural
economist at Iowa
>                               State University, calls it "the biggest
assault on American
>                               agriculture I have ever witnessed."
Altogether, the fiasco
>                               could cost Aventis half a billion dollars. 
>                                 
>                               The long-term consequences may be more
severe. So
>                               far Americans have been much more accepting
of
>                               genetically modified food than the rest of
the world. If
>                               Starlink triggers hysteria among Americans,
the world's
>                               biggest appetite for that promising
technology will shrink,
>                               and the whole science will be retarded for
years. If
>                               foreign food processors that buy U.S.
agricultural
>                               commodities worry that American grain glows
in the dark,
>                               they will turn even more to Brazil and
other countries for
>                               their food, and U.S. farm prices, already
depressed, will
>                               fall further. 
>                                 
>                               Harvest of Trouble Starlink seeds were
planted on just
>                               350, 000 of America's 80 million acres of
com last year,
>                               mostly in the upper Midwest. 
>                                 
>                               1-1,000 acres 1,001 - 10,000 acres 10,000 -
100,000
>                               acres Iowa: 135,000 acres 
>                                 
>                               One of the more surprising revelations of
the Starlink
>                               mess isn't that genetically modified food
h0as suddenly
>                               appeared in the food supply, but rather how
much such
>                               food is already out there. Most of us have
heard about
>                               such oddities as strawberries protected
from frost
>                               damage by a gene transplanted from an
arctic fish. But
>                               did you know that genetically modified
soybeans now
>                               account for 60% of all soy grown in the
U.S.? Called
>                               Roundup Ready, the plants were developed by
>                               Monsanto to tolerate Roundup, one of the
company's
>                               weed-killers. Says Gary Niery, a farmer in
central Illinois:
>                               "Before Roundup, we used to use a quart of
herbicide
>                               per acre. Now it's just ounces." Similarly
engineered soy
>                               plants, including LibertyLink from Aventis,
are sold by
>                               other companies. 
>                                 
>                               Close on the heels of Roundup Ready soy
came another
>                               kind of genetically altered plant: one that
produced its
>                               own pesticide. That's where the Starlink
story begins.
>                               For nearly 30 years farmers have sprayed
crops with
>                               solutions derived from a soil bacterium
called Bacillus
>                               thuringiensis. This so-called Bt spray is
harmless to
>                               humans but quite effective against a
variety of pests,
>                               including corn borers. However, it doesn't
kill all corn
>                               borers, especially those that often show up
in a second
>                               wave of infestation in midsummer. In 1995
seed
>                               companies such as Pioneer Hi-Bred and
DeKalb won
>                               approval to sell corn genetically altered
to produce the
>                               pesticide found in soil bacteria; this seed
killed nearly
>                               99% of corn borers. About 18% of corn
planted in the
>                               U.S. last year was of the Bt variety. 
>                                 
>                               One bag of seed corn (enough to plant 2
acres) costs
>                               $90; Bt corn costs an additional $15 per
bag. Corn-borer
>                               infestations vary widely from year to year,
depending on
>                               wind and rain. If infestations are mild,
it's cheaper to fight
>                               the borer with sprays. But in broad swaths
of the
>                               Cornbelt where the borer is a chronic
problem, the Bt
>                               varieties of seed are more economical.
Roughly a quarter
>                               of the corn grown last year in Iowa,
Kansas, Nebraska,
>                               and Minnesota was of the Bt type; the
figure was 35% in
>                               South Dakota. 
>                                 
>                               Pioneer and DeKalb's head start in the
Btengineered
>                               crop business worried Aventis, a
$20billion-a-year
>                               French pharmaceuticals and agricultural
sciences
>                               company formed last year by the merger of
>                               Rhône-Poulenc and Hoechst. Although most of
Aventis'
>                               revenues come from drugs such as Allegra, a
>                               prescription antihistamine, the company's
crop-sciences
>                               division had sales of $4 billion last year,
making it one of
>                               the biggest agproducts operations in the
world. At least
>                               some Aventis officials had big hopes for
genetic
>                               engineering. "We were spending $450 million
a year on
>                               R&D in the agricultural division," says an
executive who,
>                               like all Aventis officials interviewed by
FORTUNE,
>                               declined to be identified. "We had gone
about as far as
>                               you could fighting weeds and pests with
chemicals and
>                               needed to make a big shift to
biotechnology." Even
>                               before their companies merged, executives at
>                               Rhone-Poulenc and Hoechst worried that
rivals were
>                               grabbing market share in key agricultural
technologies
>                               that would be difficult to win back later. 
>                                 
>                               Buried in the welter of corporate
subentities created by
>                               the RhônePoulenc/Hoechst combination was a
small
>                               Belgian company called Plant Genetics,
which Hoechst
>                               had acquired in 1996. Corporate life cannot
have been
>                               easy for the managers and scientists at
Plant Genetics,
>                               who had been working for a decade on a Bt
variety of
>                               corn. Four years before the Aventis merger,
Hoechst had
>                               formed a joint venture with Schering, the
U.S. drug
>                               company. Plant Genetics was acquired by the
joint
>                               venture, called Agrevo, which was later
folded again into
>                               a division of Aventis. The point here is
less the details
>                               than the big picture. There was lots of
upheaval at Plant
>                               Genetics-its tiny U.S. headquarters moved
through three
>                               cities in four years. It is reasonable to
assume, too, that
>                               operational details surrounding a corn gene
were hardly
>                               the most important concern of senior
Aventis executives
>                               trying to manage a $20 billion merger.
Until it was too
>                               late. 
>                                 
>                               Although scientists at Plant Genetics were
a few years
>                               behind the competition, they were excited
about what
>                               they had created: a variety of the Bt
protein that
>                               destroyed a different part of the corn
borer's gut. This
>                               was important because an additional
vulnerability would
>                               make it harder for the corn borer to
develop resistance to
>                               Bt pesticides. The Bt variety created in
Starlink corn was
>                               called Cry9. (Bt proteins have a
crystalline shape, so
>                               different varieties were called Cry1, Cry2,
etc.) Aventis
>                               scientists thought Cry9 was a winner that
would make
>                               them significant players in the next
generation of
>                               agricultural products. Federal regulators
in the U.S. were
>                               more cautious. 
>                                 
>                               David Witherspoon of Garst Seed Co. holds a
genetically
>                               altered seedling. Garst was the biggest
seller of Starlink. 
>                                 
>                               In the early 1980s, when the prospect of
bioengineered
>                               crops first emerged, people from numerous
U.S.
>                               government agencies met to discuss how to
regulate the
>                               products. They agreed that the Department
of Agriculture
>                               would determine whether a new plant was
safe to grow
>                               outdoors: Would it run amok, for example,
and harm
>                               other plants or animals? If a genetically
altered plant was
>                               supposed to produce a pesticide, the
Environmental
>                               Protection Agency would decide whether the
plant was
>                               safe in food. The Food and Drug
Administration would
>                               enforce the food safety standards
established by the
>                               EPA. 
>                                 
>                               In 1997, when EPA scientists were
evaluating Starlink,
>                               they saw something they hadn't seen in
other brands of
>                               Bt corn. Starlink's Cry9 protein didn't
dissolve in stomach
>                               acid as quickly as proteins in other Bt
varieties. Nor did it
>                               break down as rapidly during cooking or
processing. This
>                               meant that the Cry9 protein, unlike the
others, might stay
>                               in the stomach long enough to be passed
intact into the
>                               bloodstream, where it could trigger an
allergic reaction.
>                               "Other Bt proteins lasted only a few
seconds in simulated
>                               gastric juices," says Stephen Johnson,
deputy assistant
>                               administrator of the EPA in charge of
pesticide
>                               regulations. "This broke down much more
slowly." In
>                               other tests, however, the Cry9 protein
seemed fine. "We
>                               looked at the structure of the molecule and
asked if it
>                               walked and talked like other known
allergens," says
>                               Johnson. "It did not. So we were faced with
two of three
>                               studies saying there was something
different about this
>                               pesticide. We decided we couldn't allow it
in food without
>                               more tests." 
>                                 
>                               Starlink's developers, eager to market
their product,
>                               invoked a little-known EPA rule that allows
some
>                               pesticides and herbicides to be used on
feed for animals
>                               but not on food destined for humans. This
"split
>                               registration" had never been sought for
genetically
>                               modified products. Johnson notes. "We
looked at each
>                               other and said, 'What do we know about
allergens? We
>                               know they don't pass through cattle.' We
spoke to USDA
>                               and FDA, and they said [Starlink] passes
the standard.
>                               We didn't feel real comfortable with it.
But the law
>                               prevents us from saying, `We don't like
your product.' So
>                               we allowed it but put restrictions on it."
For their caution,
>                               Johnson says, "we were denounced as
pointy-headed
>                               regulators." 
>                                 
>                               The restrictions on Starlink corn were
severe. It could be
>                               grown only for animal feed or for nonfood
use, such as
>                               conversion to ethanol. Because regulators
worried that
>                               windblown pollen from Starlink stalks could
pass the
>                               Cry9 gene to ordinary corn, farmers had to
leave
>                               660-foot buffer strips around their
Starlink fields. Farmers
>                               bringing the corn to market had to notify
grain elevators
>                               that it could not be used in human food.
The EPA
>                               ordered Starlink's developers to require
all farmers who
>                               bought the seed to sign a form affirming
that they
>                               understood the restrictions and would abide
by them.
>                               The company also promised to conduct a
"statistically
>                               valid" survey of Starlink growers to ensure
they were
>                               following the rules. Finally, says Johnson,
"the company
>                               agreed to accept full liability if anything
went wrong." 
>                                 
>                               Neither Aventis nor its predecessor
companies ever
>                               produced much Starlink corn. Instead they
inserted the
>                               newly spliced genes into small amounts of
corn and sold
>                               the resulting sprouts to recd companies.
These then
>                               planted Starlink in greenhouses, harvested
the corn, and
>                               replanted it to create more seed.
Eventually the seed
>                               companies contracted with farmers who grow
large
>                               volumes of corn for seed under controlled
conditions
>                               outdoors. Once that seed was harvested, the
companies
>                               had enough Starlink seed to begin
marketing. 
>                                 
>                               Ultimately, about a dozen small seed
companies licensed
>                               Starlink corn from Plant Genetics. The
Garst Seed Co.,
>                               which is near Des Moines and has one of the
longest
>                               pedigrees in the seed business, produced
the vast
>                               majority of Starlink corn, according to
Aventis executives.
>                               Garst, as is common with smaller seed
companies, relies
>                               heavily on "farmer dealers" to sell its
products. These are
>                               usually farmers who use the slow winter
months to
>                               schmooze relatives and neighbors into
buying a few
>                               thousand dollars' worth of seed. In 1998,
the first year
>                               Starlink was on the market, just 10,000
acres were
>                               planted. Last year a mere 350,000 of
America's 79.6
>                               million acres of corn were Starlink. The
highest
>                               concentration of Starlink in any state last
year was 1.1 %
>                               in Iowa, Garst's backyard. 
>                                 
>                               Nevertheless, the proliferation of Bt corn
was causing
>                               growing concern outside the Farmbelt. In
April 1999 an
>                               entomology professor at Cornell University
researching
>                               corn-borer resistance to Bt reported that
he had fed a
>                               diet of corn pollen to monarch butterflies'
larvae. Many of
>                               the monarchs that ate Bt pollen died. This
caused a furor
>                               among environmentalists, who admire the
monarch for its
>                               yearly migration from Mexico and back. Many
>                               environmentalists are profoundly worried
about all
>                               genetically altered plants and animals,
fearful that they
>                               contain health hazards that won't become
apparent for
>                               years, or that they will somehow reproduce
wildly and
>                               overwhelm ordinary species. For
environmentalists, the
>                               monarch was about to become the poster
butterfly of the
>                               anti-Frankenfood movement. 
>                                 
>                               Among the environmentalists who led the
charge against
>                               Bt corn was Larry Bohlen, an engineer by
training and a
>                               senior official in the Washington office of
Friends of the
>                               Earth. For years FOE and other greens had
been trying
>                               to get the U.S. government to sign
international protocols
>                               on the use of genetically modified
organisms. "When the
>                               Cornell study on monarch butterflies came
out, we had
>                               our first tangible example of the kind of
impact genetic
>                               crops could have," says Bohlen. He wrote to
President
>                               Clinton asking that use of Bt plants be
suspended until
>                               their effect on nontarget animals could be
determined.
>                               And he began writing to consumer-product
companies
>                               like Campbell's, Kellogg, and Frito-Lay,
urging them to
>                               forswear all genetically modified food.
Last July the
>                               campaign began in earnest. Bohlen arranged
for popular
>                               foods to be tested for genetically altered
ingredients "so
>                               we could contact the manufacturers and tell
them to be
>                               more careful." 
>                                 
>                               Eventually Bohlen learned about Starlink.
"When I asked
>                               grain elevator operators and farmers how
Starlink and
>                               other unapproved varieties were being
segregated, I was
>                               told that separation was difficult and that
very little
>                               segregation was being done." Bingo. Bohlen
had his
>                               galvanizing image. "By summer it seemed
there was a
>                               good chance Starlink had made it into the
food supply."
>                               In late July of last year, Bohlen went to
the Safeway near
>                               his home in Silver Spring, Md., and filled
his grocery cart
>                               "with all the corn products I could find."
He sent them to
>                               Genetic ID, an Iowa lab that routinely
checks commodity
>                               shipments bound for Europe to make sure
they comply
>                               with European Union standards. In September
the news
>                               that Starlink corn had been found in tacos
made by Kraft
>                               and sold under the Taco Bell brand was
splashed across
>                               the front page of the Washington Post. 
>                                 
>                               David Witherspoon, president of the Garst
Seed Co.,
>                               can't recall where he was when the news
broke. That's
>                               surprising, because if anybody should have
been
>                               electrified by the development, it was the
head of Garst,
>                               which sold nearly all the Starlink produced
in the U.S.
>                               "We were very concerned," Witherspoon now
says.
>                               Aventis executives say they were
flabbergasted and
>                               didn't believe the reports at first. A
biotech industry
>                               organization immediately questioned the
reliability of
>                               Genetic ID. But then Kraft ordered its own
tests of the
>                               tacos; it found Starlink and recalled more
than a million
>                               boxes. Other taco makers did the same.
Kellogg shut
>                               down one of its mills because it feared
Starlink
>                               contamination. Grain elevators, in the
midst of gathering
>                               the fall harvest, scrambled for ways to
test arriving
>                               truckloads for Starlink contamination. In
many ways it
>                               was too late; most of the Starlink in the
nation's food had
>                               come from the 1999 corn crop. And because
1999 had
>                               been a bumper year, there were more than a
billion
>                               bushels of unsold corn still sitting in
silos. No one knew
>                               how much of it was mixed with Starlink. 
>                                 
>                                 
>                                 
>                               Illinois farmer Howard Buffets (Warren's
son) says
>                               Starlink shows the difficulty of separating
subtly different
>                               products. 
>                                 
>                               How did this happen? Every farmer who had
bought
>                               Starlink signed a form agreeing to keep it
out of the
>                               human food supply, right? Well, not
exactly. Many of the
>                               2,500 Starlink farmers appear to have been
clueless
>                               about it. Hundreds claimed their seed
salesmen never
>                               told them they were buying Starlink, and
certainly didn't
>                               pass on any precautions about how to plant
it. The head
>                               of the agriculture committee of the Iowa
House of
>                               Representatives, Ralph Klemme, says he
bought Starlink
>                               but was never told it was forbidden for use
in food.
>                               Thomas Miller, the Iowa Attorney General,
says "the vast
>                               majority" of farmers did not sign any forms
>                               acknowledging planting and marketing
limits. It was not
>                               until a few weeks after the Starlink news
broke that
>                               farmers who planted the seed received a
letter asking
>                               them to sign and return some forms; the
forms appear to
>                               have been backdated to before the spring
planting.
>                               Aventis executives vigorously deny having
anything to do
>                               with the letter. In a telephone interview,
Garst CEO
>                               Witherspoon said he would "prefer not to
get into that,"
>                               citing potential litigation. 
>                                 
>                               Witherspoon insists that Garst provided
information to all
>                               its salesmen about Starlink. Asked whether
Garst
>                               salesmen were diligent about having farmers
sign the
>                               EPA-required forms, Witherspoon was vague.
"The
>                               dealers would have started getting the
forms and would
>                               know we had them. We tried to get them to
dealers. We'd
>                               remind them to use them." 
>                                 
>                               It seems unlikely that Garst's farmer
salesmen would
>                               have knowingly deceived customers. The seed
business
>                               relies heavily on the trust that exists
when farmers sell
>                               seed to relatives and neighbors. Garst is
one of the
>                               oldest companies in the business; it began
in 1930 by
>                               marketing hybrid seeds developed by Henry
A. Wallace,
>                               the founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred. (Wallace
was later Vice
>                               President under Franklin Roosevelt.) Garst
was so well
>                               known that Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev
visited its
>                               founder, Roswell Garst, on his Iowa farm in
1959. But the
>                               company ran into trouble in the early
1980s, when
>                               Pioneer severed its relationship with Garst
to market its
>                               own seed. Garst lost the bitter lawsuit
that ensued. The
>                               family sold the business to ICI, the
British chemical
>                               company, in 1985. (Du Pont bought Pioneer
in 1999.) ICI
>                               later spun off its U.S. seed business to
Zeneca, a British
>                               drug company. Garst is now a part of
Advanta, a joint
>                               venture between Zeneca and Royal
Vander-Have Group
>                               in the Netherlands. Ironically, Advanta
made headlines in
>                               Europe last year when canola seeds it had
sold there
>                               were found to contain small amounts of
genetically
>                               altered material forbidden by the EU. The
seeds, grown
>                               in Canada, may have been contaminated by
windblown
>                               pollen from other canola nearby. 
>                                 
>                               "I am outraged at Aventis," says Stephen
Johnson of the
>                               EPA. "This is enormously important
technology. We
>                               trusted Aventis to handle it properly, and
they didn't."
>                               Aventis eventually took responsibility for
the Starlink
>                               mess; the company is spending millions to
locate the
>                               rogue corn so that it can be put into
animal feed. Aventis
>                               executives say that they thought Garst was
spelling out
>                               the restrictions on Starlink to farmers,
but hint that they
>                               didn't monitor Garst carefully. Neil Harl,
the agricultural
>                               economist at Iowa State, says he doubts
Garst was
>                               motivated to be very explicit about how
Starlink had to be
>                               grown and sold. "What farmer would buy a
variety of
>                               seed if he was told he had to plant a
660foot buffer strip
>                               around it, and would have to go through all
sorts of
>                               special separation and storage after the
harvest?"
>                               Witherspoon disagrees, saying the company
sent 15
>                               mailings to Starlink farmers. As for the
"statistically
>                               significant" survey of farmer compliance
that Aventis had
>                               promised the EPA, the company appears to
have
>                               dropped the ball. Garst conducted the
survey, says an
>                               Aventis executive, but did it right after
the harvest, when
>                               most corn was still stored on farms. 
>                                 
>                               Both Garst and Aventis officials implied in
interviews that
>                               if they failed to live up to all their
agreements with the
>                               EPA, it was because they were convinced
Starlink would
>                               soon get full approval for use in food and
that the special
>                               conditions would be lifted. "Aventis was
working very
>                               hard on those approvals," says Witherspoon. 
>                                 
>                               If Starlink triggers hysteria about genetic
food in the U.S.,
>                               the world's biggest appetite for that
promising technology
>                               will dry up, and the science will be
retarded for years.
>                               Even after giving Aventis and Garst their
share of the
>                               blame, there's plenty more to go around.
Johnson, the
>                               EPA official, now concedes that a split
registration for
>                               Starlink, allowing it in feed but not food,
was a dumb
>                               idea. "It was the first and last time we
will allow that," he
>                               says. Critics point accusingly at the FDA,
which was
>                               supposed to enforce food standards
established by the
>                               EPA. Larry Bohlen at Friends of the Earth
says the FDA
>                               didn't even have a way of testing for
Starlink in food and
>                               that the agency moved slowly when news of
the
>                               contamination first came out. "Kraft ran
circles around the
>                               FDA. The day Kraft pulled its tacos off the
shelf, the FDA
>                               was faxing me to ask if I would send them
some of my
>                               taco shells. Kraft had already tested and
confirmed on
>                               multiple lots." An FDA spokeswoman declined
to
>                               comment on the agency's role in Starlink. 
>                                 
>                               To its belated credit, Aventis has been
aggressively
>                               trying to locate Starlink seed. It
requested Garst's list of
>                               Starlink customers and met with all of them
within days.
>                               Aventis is paying farmers up to 25 cents
for each bushel
>                               of Starlink seed fed to animals. When
grain-elevator
>                               owners discover that a batch of Starlink has
>                               contaminated a million-bushel silo, Aventis
negotiates
>                               compensation for their added efforts and
expense. The
>                               company has also paid for millions of test
kits used by
>                               farmers, food processors, and grain
handlers to identify
>                               traces of Starlink. Just how much is out
there is
>                               anybody's guess. Because many farmers
failed to plant
>                               buffer strips, pollen sometimes drifted
into neighbors'
>                               fields, causing that corn to test positive.
Moreover, some
>                               Garst seed varieties that weren't supposed
to contain
>                               Starlink turn out to have been
contaminated, the
>                               company now admits, and that adds to the
difficulty of
>                               finding it. 
>                                 
>                               Even though Aventis executives don't argue
with
>                               assertions that the debacle may cost the
company
>                               hundreds of millions of dollars, Wall
Street appears
>                               unfazed. Aventis ADRs climbed from $71 to
$77 between
>                               early September and late January. Some
farmers have
>                               fared well too. Even if they planned all
along to feed the
>                               Starlink they grew to their cattle, Aventis
is paying them a
>                               premium for it. 
>                                 
>                               But the reactions of people like Jerry Rowe
are more
>                               typical. Rowe manages the Farmers Grain
Cooperative,
>                               a four-million-bushel grain elevator in
Dalton City, Ill. He
>                               says Starlink has greatly complicated his
life. At peak
>                               times he unloads a truck every two minutes.
"The
>                               Starlink test takes five minutes per truck,
and I can't
>                               afford to slow down." And his sampling
probe could miss
>                               Starlink lurking in a far corner of a
truck. "Maybe I'll miss
>                               it coming in, but the customer finds it
when I'm shipping it
>                               out," says Rowe. Corn that Rowe could sell
for $2.14 a
>                               bushel to Archer Daniels Midland in nearby
Decatur
>                               might get rejected, forcing him to spend 20
cents a
>                               bushel to ship it to Cedar Rapids, where
the pay is just
>                               $2.06. Rowe also worries that if he finds
Starlink in his
>                               bins a year from now, Aventis won't
compensate him.
>                               Aventis claims that it will. 
>                                 
>                               The long-term consequences of Starlink seed
are hard to
>                               predict. No serious health problems have
emerged so
>                               far. About three dozen people complained to
the FDA
>                               about bad reactions to corn products in the
days after
>                               Starlink first made headlines. Many clearly
did not have
>                               allergic reactions, and virtually all the
rest had mild
>                               problems like itchy eyes or a tight throat.
A pediatric
>                               allergist from Duke University told a
scientific advisory
>                               panel convened by the EPA that unless
someone has an
>                               anaphylactic reaction to Starlink, he or
she does not
>                               have a food allergy. But the panel decided
that Starlink
>                               does indeed walk and talk like a potential
allergen, and
>                               advised the EPA to turn down a request by
Aventis that
>                               small amounts of it be allowed in the food
supply. 
>                                 
>                               Starlink has not triggered widespread
hysteria about
>                               genetically modified food in the U.S., to
the
>                               disappointment, no doubt, of some
environmental
>                               groups. But Johnson at the EPA still
worries that the
>                               episode may slow the acceptance of
genetically modified
>                               products. "I am outraged at Aventis," he
says. "This is
>                               enormously important technology. We trusted
Aventis to
>                               handle it properly, and they didn't." 
>                                 
>                               He is probably right to be concerned.
Pierre Deloffre,
>                               head of a large French vegetable-processing
company,
>                               told a seed trade convention in Chicago
last December
>                               that Europeans turned abruptly away from
genetically
>                               modified foods during the 1990s. Deloffre
blames
>                               government regulators and scientists who
failed to
>                               respond properly to Chernobyl, AIDS in the
blood supply,
>                               and mad cow disease for eroding Europeans'
confidence
>                               in technology. "Five years ago the first
boatloads of
>                               genetically modified soybeans arrived here
without the
>                               slightest reaction," says Deloffre. Now the
EU barely
>                               touches them. 
>                                 
>                               Although Europe hasn't imported much
American corn for
>                               years, Japan is a large customer. The
Japanese have
>                               been fairly tolerant of bioengineered food,
but they, too,
>                               are growing cautious. New rules that take
effect in Japan
>                               this spring will require labels on food to
state if it contains
>                               genetically modified ingredients. An
executive at ADM
>                               says orders from Japan for unmodified corn
and soy
>                               have already begun to climb in anticipation
of the new
>                               labels. 
>                                 
>                               Since it caused no serious illnesses,
Starlink will
>                               probably be a footnote in future agronomy
textbooks. In
>                               reality, though, this was a disturbingly
close brush with
>                               disaster. Starlink was probably circulating
in the food
>                               supply for a year before it was found. If
it had been slow
>                               acting but truly dangerous, like mad cow
disease, the
>                               damage could have been enormous. Critical
links in the
>                               food chain from Aventis and Garst to
thousands of small
>                               farmers-turned out to be either unconcerned
about or
>                               oblivious to what they were selling and
growing. 
>                                 
>                               If we're lucky, maybe Starlink will also be
a wake-up call,
>                               reminding us that tinkering with Mother
Nature is risky
>                               business -and that it's not just
white-coated lab
>                               technicians who must be careful. Solving
the problem of
>                               hunger and malnutrition may ultimately
depend not so
>                               much on science as on our faith in science
and all its
>                               stewards. And if you can't trust a farmer,
who can you
>                               trust? 
>                                 
>                                 
>                               Organic Consumers Association -
>                               http://www.purefood.org
> 
> 
>                                    
> 
>                                 
>                                                  MainPage
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