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By Kurt Eichenwald
The New York Times
October 14, 2000
Efforts to trace shipments
of a bioengineered corn unapproved for human consumption have raised concern
among food and grain industry officials that the corn - which has already
been discovered in two brands of grocery products - may have made its
way more widely into production channels for the nation's food supply.
Millions
of bushels of the unapproved corn, known as StarLink, have been delivered
to more than 350 grain elevators around the country.
Government and industry officials, uncertain how much of the
corn has been properly segregated and identified, are now pushing the
operators to test their supplies for evidence of contamination.
There is no evidence that the corn causes health
problems in humans, but the discoveries have led to nationwide recalls
of two brands of store-bought taco shells, a move that was extended yesterday
to a larger group of brands and products.
Food companies, many of which are now testing every
shipment of corn for signs of the unapproved grain, have reacted with
dismay to growing evidence of contamination, saying that it demonstrates
a breakdown in the procedures intended to keep products grown from genetically
modified seeds separate from conventional grains.
"This
whole system has been self- policing by the seed industry," one food
company executive said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And
obviously it hasn't worked."
The concern about StarLink has strained relations
between the nation's grain companies and the developer of the corn, Aventis
Crop Science, a subsidiary of Aventis S.A. of France. For example, according
to a communication to the organization's members, the National Grain and
Feed Association has demanded that the company reveal the names of the
more than 2,000 farmers growing StarLink crops, information that would
allow the industry to track potentially contaminated shipments more quickly.
But those requests have been refused. The grain
association has since filed a request with the Environmental Protection
Agency under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking the names of those
farmers.
The StarLink corn is engineered
to produce a protein toxic to a common pest, the corn borer.
It was cleared for animal feed or industrial products in 1998, but the
E.P.A. withheld approval for use in food meant for human consumption because
tests showed properties indicating that it might cause allergies.
On Sept. 29, shortly after the first detection of
contaminated taco shells, Aventis CropScience said it had reached an agreement
with three federal agencies to work together to buy up all of this year's
StarLink crop and to ensure that it had not entered the food supply.
Since then, the company has contacted the farmers,
urging them to store the corn until further notice and questioning them
about how the product had been handled.
What was found, according
to industry officials who have been briefed on the results, is that not
all farmers had signed required contracts obligating them to follow certain
procedures intended to keep StarLink out of the food supply. As a result,
the company is now urging elevator operators to begin testing corn shipments
for the presence of the modified grain.
"This is a very sensitive matter, and everyone's
role in preventing StarLink corn from entering unapproved channels is
critical," John Wichtrich, vice president and general manager of
Aventis CropScience, wrote to elevator operators. In the letter, Mr. Wichtrich
urged the elevator operators "to take those measures you believe
necessary to insure that the corn you purchase is suitable for the use
you intend."
Mr. Wichtrich did not respond to a telephone message
seeking comment.
Among the measures the company recommends is that
elevator operators ask corn growers about each delivery to determine if
it contains StarLink, or if it was grown less than 660 feet from a crop
of the bioengineered corn. Corn fields grown in that proximity risk contamination
by the bioengineered crop. While Aventis informed farmers that "buffer
zones" of that size were necessary between StarLink and other corn
crops, some farmers have been found not to have strictly
adhered to the instruction.
"The food
industry is very concerned that StarLink has contaminated a larger portion
of the grain supply," one
government official involved in the matter said.
Two grain industry officials said that based on
the information they had received, as
much as 100,000 acres of corn may have been grown within the buffer zones,
in addition to the 315,000 acres for which StarLink
seed was sold.
In the scramble to keep StarLink out of the food
supply, a cottage industry has emerged in the last two weeks for testing
kits to determine evidence of Cry9C protein, which is present in the bioengineered
corn. The kits, which are used to test corn grain but not processed food,
are manufactured by Strategic Diagnostics of Newark, Del.
The most common kit, known as a strip test, is used
by food and grain companies at the point of delivery, providing information
within minutes whether a corn shipment has been contaminated with StarLink.
An individual strip test is designed to detect the StarLink protein in
concentrations greater than 0.25 percent, although the sensitivity of
the test can be improved by repeating the test or by increasing the number
of kernels of corn sampled - from 125 to as many as 400.
At a meeting on Tuesday with officials from the
Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the
Food and Drug Administration, the company spelled out details of its contacts
with 2,070 farmers who have grown the StarLink crops.
In the presentation, according to industry executives
who have been briefed on the results, Aventis CropScience said that it
had determined that 10.7 million bushels
of StarLink had been fed to livestock, while 47 million bushels remained
on the farm or unharvested. Slightly less than nine million bushels has
been delivered into commercial channels.
Altogether, the StarLink grain represents roughly
one-half of 1 percent of this year's corn harvest, which totaled more
than 10 billion bushels.
In registered letters to growers of StarLink, the
company has urged them to keep the bioengineered corn stored on the farm
until they receive further instructions about where it should be delivered.
The farmers will be paid a premium over the market price for the corn
in exchange for keeping it stored.
The StarLink corn was first found last month in
store-bought taco shells distributed under the Taco Bell brand by Kraft
Foods, which issued a nationwide recall. On Wednesday, a similar finding
was made in house-brand taco shells sold by the Safeway supermarket chain.
The two products were made of yellow corn from the same mill, run by Azteca
Milling in Plainview, Tex.
Yesterday, Mission Foods, which produced the Safeway
shells, announced a recall of all its tortilla products made with yellow
corn on the chance that some might contain StarLink corn. The company,
a subsidiary of the Gruma Group of Mexico, which is based in Irving, Tex.,
sells products under the Mission name as well as numerous private- label
brands.
Mission declined to name which
other major grocery chains carried its private-label products,
citing confidentiality agreements.
"This is a voluntary recall but we have strongly
recommended it to them," said Peter Pitts, a spokesman for Mission.
"We did this after conversations with our customers and the F.D.A.
It's prudent. The most important thing is confidence in the safety of
the food chain."
The company said it stopped buying corn on Sept.
23 from the Plainview mill. Now it plans to take the additional step of
making all of its products from white corn "until there is clarification
from the government on the safety of the yellow corn supply."
Azteca Milling, also a Gruma subsidiary based in
Irving, announced its own voluntary recall of all yellow corn flour yesterday.
Dan Lynn, the company's president, said it would mill only white corn
because that was the "surest way to bolster confidence" that
no corn unapproved for human consumption had entered the food chain.
All efforts to keep StarLink out of the food supply
entail costs, whether for testing kits, storage or diversion of corn purchased
for food into channels for feed. And already, in preparation for potential
litigation, grain operators and food companies are reviewing the original
registration for StarLink that the E.P.A. granted Aventis. That registration
was effectively revoked earlier this week, grain and food companies are
hoping but it can be used to force Aventis to pick up the ultimate cost
of the current effort.
For example, one term in the registration states
that Aventis "is liable for the actions of its customers in regard
to meeting the terms and limitations of this registration."
In a communication this week with grain processors
and elevator operators, the grain and feed association cited that statement.
"Thus," the association wrote, "companies may wish to carefully
document for future action instances in which StarLink corn was unknowingly
delivered to a facility."
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