-Caveat Lector-
Hunt begins for corn linked to biotech scare
October 20, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The company that developed a variety of gene-
altered corn linked to a nationwide recall of taco shells is trying to recover
nine million bushels of the grain that may be headed to food companies.
The corn, known as StarLink, was not approved for human consumption
because of questions about its potential to cause allergic reactions.
Federal officials describe the health risk as remote; Starlink is approved
only for animal food or industrial uses.
"We're doing everything we can that's humanly possible to try to track that
corn down," Aventis CropScience spokesman Rick Rountree said
Thursday.
The missing grain represents about 10 percent of this year's crop of the
corn.
Mills nationwide are starting to test incoming corn and unshipped flour for
signs of Starlink, said Betsy Faga, president of the North American Millers
Association. She was unaware of any positive tests.
Archer Daniels Midland Co., a leading grain handler and processor, began
testing deliveries at its elevators a week ago and has turned away "a
handful of trucks out of hundreds," said company spokesman Larry
Cunningham.
ConAgra Foods Inc., one of the nation's biggest food makers, stopped
making corn flour at a mill in Kansas on October 11 because it may have
received some of the StarLink.
The corn found in taco shells was traced to a single mill in Texas.
Most of the seed for the corn was sold by an Iowa-based company, Garst
Seed, and 40 percent of it was planted in the state, the Des Moines
Register reported Friday.
This means huge problems for Iowa's more than 150 grain elevators.
They're bulging with freshly harvested corn, but so far it's not clear how
much of it may have been commingled with StarLink.
"The vast majority of this corn is controlled," Agriculture Department
spokeswoman Susan McAvoy said. "We're working with Aventis and
vigorously attempting to locate the remainder."
Aventis has canceled its government license to market the crop and
agreed to reimburse the Agriculture Department for the cost of buying up all
of this year's harvest.
Aventis' inability to find all of the corn leaves food processors up in the air,
said Gene Grabowski, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of
America. "Everyone understands that consumer sensitivity on this issue is
highly important even if there is no evidence of harm," he said.
Among the corn products in grocery stores are taco shells, corn chips, and
breakfast cereals.
Aventis was required by the Environmental Protection Agency to make
sure that farmers did not sell the corn for food use. Company officials now
acknowledge some farmers either were not told of the restriction or forgot
about it.
Farmers did not buy the seed directly from Aventis but from seed
companies that sold it under license from Aventis, based in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina. Rountree said there was a "breakdown in
communications" between the farmers, Aventis and the seed companies.
About 2,000 farmers this year grew StarLink, which is expected to account
for about 0.4 percent of the nation's total corn harvest.
Each of the growers was contacted by the company and given the option of
selling the corn to the government or keeping it on their farm. The grain that
has been sold is being tracked through the elevator that purchased it.
"You have a lot of guys who are so mad they don't want to deal with USDA
or Aventis, and they don't know what they're going to do about those
farmers," said Tom Jennings, an official in the Illinois Agriculture
Department.
Iowa's attorney general, Tom Miller, said he is trying to get Aventis to
reimburse farmers who lost money on grain that was mixed with the
StarLink corn.
StarLink is one of several varieties of corn that contains a bacterium gene
that makes it toxic to insect pests.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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