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Corn seed about to be sold to farmers for this year's crop has been
found to contain small amounts of a genetically engineered variety of
the grain that prompted massive recalls of food and crops last year,
government and industry sources said yesterday.
Seed companies detected the presence of the engineered corn, known
as StarLink, while testing their stocks to make sure the seed was free
of the biotech variety, which has been approved only for animal
consumption because of concerns about its safety for humans.
There is no immediate public health threat because none of the seed
has been planted. But if the problem is found to be widespread,
farmers and grain exporters fear it could be devastating because major
buyers of American corn in Europe and Asia have said they will refuse
to buy any corn suspected of containing StarLink. The United States
earns billion of dollars in corn exports every year.
In response, alarmed representatives of the seed industry and other
corn and food industry officials are scheduled to meet today with
officials from the three federal agencies that oversee agricultural
biotechnology.
"There may be low levels of [the StarLink protein] in some
non-StarLink hybrid corn seed," an Agriculture Department
official confirmed yesterday. Those attending today's meeting will
"look into the issue and further evaluate what steps may be
necessary to address it."
The worried reaction to the discovery illustrates how controversial
and sensitive the issue of genetically engineered crops has become.
Although most scientific organizations have concluded the crops are
safe, there is widespread public concern in Europe and Japan that
genetically modified crops could cause unforeseen environmental and
human health problems, and there is some evidence that concerns are
growing in the United States as well.
StarLink contains a gene spliced in to produce a form of a protein
naturally made by a bacterium called Bacillus thuringienis, or
Bt. The protein kills the destructive European corn borer. Other
genetically engineered crops on the market contain forms of the Bt
protein, but those have been approved for human and animal use,
avoiding the problem that StarLink caused.
Industry sources said yesterday that it was unclear how the seed
corn came to contain the StarLink protein, called Cry9c. Federal
regulators have required farmers growing genetically modified crops to
plant buffer crops of non-modified plants because of concerns that
pollen would drift onto nearby fields and cross-breed with
conventional crops.
The creator of StarLink, Aventis CropScience, maintains the corn is
safe for human consumption and has asked the Environmental Protection
Agency to approve it retroactively for human use to avert future
disruptions of the corn supply. But the agency is under intense
pressure from critics of biotechnology to keep the ban on human use.
The EPA has declined to approve StarLink for humans because Cry9c
breaks down more slowly than similar biotech products, raising fears
that it could cause dangerous allergic reactions.
Industry sources said the level of Cry9c being found in corn seed
is very low. But because the protein is not allowed in food at all,
any found in this year's corn would be considered a contaminant.
Ships filled with American corn were turned back from Japan last
year after officials found StarLink in the shipments.
The Agriculture Department recently reported that corn exports have
declined this year, and analysts have pointed to StarLink as the
reason.
Last year Aventis officials initiated a massive and expensive
buyback of StarLink corn, and corn found to contain StarLink, after
they discovered that it had been inadvertently mixed with corn
destined for human consumption. A company official said yesterday that
94 million bushels of corn have been purchased under the program and
that 99 percent of the 1999 and 2000 corn has been identified and
contained.
In all, the official said, more than 28,000 truckloads, 15,000 rail
cars and 285 barges of corn tested positive for StarLink.
It was unclear yesterday how many seed companies have found Cry9c
in their products.
Representatives of the American Seed Trade Association, who are
expected to be at the meeting today, declined to comment yesterday.
The discovery of StarLink in food ranging from taco shells to beer
last year underscored how difficult it is to segregate genetically
modified crops from conventional ones. The presence of the StarLink
protein in corn seed suggests segregation may be impossible.
2001 The Washington Post Company |