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The United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allowing
corn and other crops to be used as factories
for producing pharmaceutical drugs and industrial
chemicals. Corn pollen can travel for miles
so it is a particularly dangerous crop to allow
for this purpose.
The
biotech company ProdiGene has twice been found
to have violated USDA guidelines and their pharmaceutical
corn nearly contaminated the human food supply.
The contents of a grain elevator had to be destroyed
in one case and 155 acres of regular corn had
to be destroyed in another.
The
Campaign has set up a special section on our
web site where you can read news stories about
the ProdiGene fiasco.
Click
here to read more about the ProdiGene contamination
The
guidelines the USDA has established to keep
these genetically engineered pharmaceutical
crops from getting into the human food supply
will not work. The USDA wants the growing season
on these crops to be delayed from the planting
of regular crops by two or three weeks. The
guidelines do provide protection for human error
which is bound to happen.
Click
here to read the USDA guidelines
The
Biotech Industry Organization (BIO) wants to
restrict these pharmaceutical crops from being
planted in the large corn producing states of
Iowa, Illinois and Indiana and parts of Nebraska,
Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri.
Trade
groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers of
America and the National Food Processors Association
only want non-food crops such as tobacco to
be used for producing genetically engineered
pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals.
The
Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
wants an immediate moratorium placed on the
growing of all pharmaceutical drug plants. We
are also encouraging Congress to hold hearings
on this matter.
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Contact
Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman requesting that
an immediate moratorium be placed on the growing of
any genetically engineered crops used to produce pharmaceutical
drugs or industrial chemicals.