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Growing clamor for biotech food safety

Case of engineered corn is having wide impact

November 20
San Jose Mercury News

Last July, Larry Bohlen bought $200 worth of yellow corn products from a Safeway in Silver Spring, Md., filling his shopping cart with corn chips, taco shells and tostadas, muffin mix, corn flakes and TV enchilada dinners.

But Bohlen was no ordinary shopper. As director of health and environmental programs at the non-profit Friends of the Earth in the nation's capital, he was looking for evidence that a genetically engineered variety of corn called StarLink, approved for animal feed and ethanol production but not human consumption, had entered the food supply.

He found exactly what he set out for, a trace of StarLink DNA in one of the products he had tested -- Kraft Food's Taco Bell Home Originals taco shells, the first of hundreds of products that have been recalled as a result of Bohlen's discovery.

What began as a shopping expedition to a suburban supermarket has shaken the agricultural biotechnology industry to its roots, by raising serious doubts about a regulatory scheme intended to protect the public from inadvertent consequences of genetically engineered crops.

As a result of the contamination, opponents of such genetic crops believe that American consumers will realize the potential dangers of a new technology that has quietly transformed American agriculture.

Already, Bohlen's discovery has had its impact. Aventis S.A., under pressure from the government, has pulled its StarLink seeds from the market and agreed to buy up this fall's StarLink corn crop. The company on Wednesday announced that it will spin off its agrochemicals business, which developed the controversial StarLink, but officials noted that the move was planned long before the recalls.

Grain elevator operators are now routinely testing for StarLink contamination; mills have been shut down to clean out possible traces of contaminated corn; and companies that purchased suspect grain, including Mission Foods Corp., one of the biggest producers of taco chips and tortillas in the world, have shifted to white corn because no varieties on the market are genetically modified.

Even the biotech industry itself has now joined the clamor for reform -- urging the Food and Drug Administration to make food safety reviews for biotech crops mandatory and complaining that the Environmental Protection Agency should never have allowed a grain on the market for animal feed that was not also approved for human food.

Later this month, a scientific advisory panel to the EPA is scheduled to consider whether StarLink can be consumed safely over the next few years.

More testing

Bohlen says that his group will continue testing for contamination in products that remain on grocery shelves.

``It's unsettling that it's come to this,'' he said in a recent interview. ``This corn contamination crisis is pivotal in determining whether any of these genetically engineered crops will ever be marketed.''

Aventis officials say that they expect no health impact from the small amount of StarLink that has found its way into the food supply. The company has ``taken unprecedented voluntary action to successfully contain StarLink corn on the farm and channel, under USDA supervision, to approved uses,'' a spokeswoman said.

The biotech industry sees the incident as slowing but not halting the introduction of new genetically engineered agricultural products.

It's ``a speed bump,'' said Carl B. Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group based in Washington, D.C. ``I think the regulatory problem needs to be addressed,'' he said. ``It does not appear to be a public health problem. Opponents of biotechnology have used it as a threat to public health, but the fact is no one sneezed.''

Nonetheless, Feldbaum added: ``The EPA should never, ever been asked for or granted approval only for animal use.'' StarLink is the only product that gained such partial approval.

Move to avoid further recalls

Feldbaum's group is backing a petition by Aventis, one of its member companies, to have StarLink temporarily declared safe for human consumption -- a move that would avoid further food recalls and unsnarl grain shipments in the farm belt. It would also reduce the company's financial exposure, which already may run into the tens of millions of dollars.

But critics object to approving the product retroactively.

``We see this as an attempt by Aventis to evade liability,'' said Jane Rissler, a senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit group known for advocating international arms control. ``They've broken the law, and they want to get out from under the consequences of breaking the law.''

Aventis claims that new evidence shows that the amount of StarLink is ``many thousands of times smaller than that required to sensitize individuals and lead to a later allergic reaction.''

At issue is whether a natural pesticide added to StarLink, a protein called Cry9C, might cause food allergies in some people.

In a lengthy document submitted to federal regulators late last month, company scientists argued that the StarLink protein is unlike most known food allergens and that the amount of that protein in any individual's diet will be too small to have an effect.

``The EPA has confirmed that the risk of allergic reaction to food containing StarLink in people, if any, is extremely low,'' said the Aventis spokeswoman, quoting from an agency press release.

She noted that over the last three years StarLink represented only a fraction of 1 percent of all the corn produced in the United States. And most of that crop goes into animal feed.

StarLink is one of several yellow corn varieties genetically engineered to produce natural pesticides, proteins found in a common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis or ``Bt.'' For 40 years, farmers have been spraying the microbe on crops as an alternative to using chemical insecticides.

Biotech scientists were able to pluck out the genes that carry the instructions for producing these proteins from different strains of Bt and splice them into the genetic machinery of corn. The result: corn plants that contain one of the Bt proteins that protect them from a common crop-destroying pest, the European corn borer.

StarLink's Bt protein -- Cry9C -- is different: It is slower to be digested in the human gut and is less easily destroyed by cooking. While these characteristics are not troublesome by themselves, they are common features of proteins in peanuts and other foods that cause food allergies in some people.

For that reason, the EPA two years ago approved the Aventis corn only for non-human use.

Possible violation

Stephen Johnson, EPA deputy assistant administrator for pesticides, said Aventis may have violated its license for using StarLink. ``They were supposed to have signed agreements with all growers. They were supposed to have all the bags appropriately labeled,'' he said. ``Now there are some questions about whether that was done.''

Johnson said that government investigators recently asked food producers to report any allegations of allergic reaction to products that may be tainted with StarLink. About 20 cases have been reported to date. In half of them, Johnson said, the investigators have already been able to rule out allergic reactions based on the medical records of the patients.

About 2 percent of the population suffers from food allergies, with such symptoms as hives, rashes, difficulty breathing or intestinal upset.

As many as 200 individuals die each year from allergic reactions, often to trace amounts of allergens.

Is the protein in StarLink corn one of those allergens?

``Unfortunately there are no shared properties of all allergens,'' said Susan L. Hefle, co-director of the food allergy research program at the University of Nebraska.

Qualified assurance

Hefle, who reviewed StarLink as a consultant to Aventis, concluded that while the data was inconclusive, there was ``a low probability'' that the Bt protein would cause allergies.

But that is not enough of an assurance to satisfy food manufacturers, such as Mission Foods, a subsidiary of Mexico's Gruma Corp. (Another Gruma subsidiary produced the flour that went into the contaminated Taco Bell brand shells.)

The contamination has also thrown the grain markets into turmoil.

``If a grain operator finds one kernel of StarLink, he's got to reject an entire load,'' said Michael J. Phillips, executive director for food and agriculture at the Biotechnology Industry Organization. ``We're going to have litigation about this for some time.''

Phillips pointed out, however, that there is no evidence to date that the protein from StarLink is present in any of the products that have been recalled.

That is because there are no well-established tests for the protein itself, according to the EPA's Johnson.

The agency, he said, is pushing Aventis and the food industry to establish methods to detect the protein.

``In the meantime, we have to assume if the DNA is present, the protein may be,'' Johnson said.

Corn farmers should be all ears

Be careful of what you plant next season, experts now warn

November 20
AP

Mishandling of the genetically modified StarLink corn variety, which is approved only for animal feed, resulted in large recalls of taco shells and some other foods earlier this fall. Fears about the U.S. grain supply have been blamed for recent drops in corn exports, and major grain handlers and government agencies are still working to segregate StarLink from corn headed to processing plants.

In a letter sent this week, Decatur-based grain processor A.E. Staley Manufacturing advises farmers to use caution if planting genetically modified hybrids, making sure they only plant those varieties approved for human use by the European Union, which constitutes a major market.

"Just as StarLink corn has changed our corn purchasing operation this year to, among other things, require testing, nothing can be assumed or taken for granted as seed choices are made for spring planting," the letter says. "The only truly safe seed selection will be seed corn free of any genetic modification."

Archer Daniels Midland Co., a major grain shipper and processor also based in Decatur, did not go quite as far. In a policy statement, the company said it supports biotechnology developments in agriculture but must produce products that will be accepted in overseas markets, which ban some biotech products.

ADM officials say all their elevators that supply processing plants will accept non-modified corn and modified strains approved for human use worldwide. Certain other varieties will be accepted only at designated elevators; no StarLink will be accepted.

Advice is also coming from the Illinois Corn Growers Association, which plans to begin distributing a 16-page booklet next week listing what types of corn will be accepted for different uses.

Doug Wilson, who farms near Gridley, said he's glad processors are communicating with growers this early as they begin deciding what to plant. In the past, he said, advisories about preferred varieties often weren't issued until producers had already bought seed corn and begun planting.

"They're giving us a much better picture of what they will and won't do. Now it will be a matter of how well we heed what they say," he said. "Everyone's got to protect themselves. If nothing else, StarLink has brought it to the forefront that there's huge liability issues."

The discovery that StarLink corn had commingled with approved corn caused farmers and grain elevator operators to worry that the controversial variety could ruin the harvest even for those who had tried to avoid the grain. But Doug Durdan, who runs Durdan Grain Elevator near Streator, said assurances from StarLink manufacturer Aventis CropScience that farmers and merchants will be reimbursed for any losses have calmed those fears.

"It's been pretty minor," he said.

So far, the company has agreed to pay farmers 25 cents per bushel over normal local prices for StarLink and "buffer corn" — crops grown near the genetically modified corn — but not commingled corn.

State attorneys general from 16 states, including Illinois, are pushing the company to cover the cost of corn that was commingled and now tests positive for StarLink. They also want the company to speed up payments.

Just how much StarLink remains to be segregated from Illinois stocks is a mystery. Mark Lambert, spokesman for the state Corn Growers Association, said there's no doubt that through commingling and cross-pollination in fields, there is more StarLink than was produced on the 17,000 acres planted in the state.

Scherrie Giamanco, chief price support program specialist for the Farm Service Agency in Illinois, said that agency is directing anyone who thinks they have StarLink to contact Aventis for information on where to deliver it and apply for payment.

"It's a finite amount and for the most part it's going to be tracked and contained," she said.

India says no to genetically modified foods and seeds

November 20
XINHUA

Genetically modified seeds and food would not be allowed into India till their safety is scientifically proved, Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday. According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), Kumar said in Calcutta, 1, 460 kilometers southeast of here, that there is a lot of apprehension about genetically modified seeds and food in the country.

"We can not allow import of things which are not acceptable to the people. Let health and environmental scientists decide how safe those are," the minister added while inaugurating a regional plant quarantine center near Calcutta.

Declaring that the central government has decided not to allow entry of "terminator" seeds into the country, Kumar said that while his country is aimed at becoming a superpower in bio- technology, the concerns of the people must also be addressed.

Warning that there has been a "globalization of pests," he called on Indian scientists to remain vigilant to check the entry of harmful exotic pests and germs into agricultural produce of the country.

McDonald's dumps GM-fed meat

November 19
BBC