White House Calls Meeting on Bio-Corn Concerns 

Officials scramble to limit Biotech corn fallout
Julie Vorman / Reuters 26oct00

WASHINGTON - The White House called a meeting of top biotech food policymakers on Thursday to work out a strategy to address Japan's concerns about the possibility of its imported U.S. grain being contaminated with a gene-spliced corn not approved for human food.

The accidental commingling of corn known as StarLink has forced U.S. grocery stores to recall various brands of taco shells, and the widespread testing by U.S. foodmakers of other products containing corn flour.

Officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department, Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Office of Management and Budget were among those summoned to discuss the contamination of U.S. food products with StarLink bio-corn.

The corn, made by Aventis SA (AVEP.PA) , has not been approved for human consumption because of concerns about potential allergic reactions.

Keith Pitts, a special advisor on biotech issues to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, said a top priority for the U.S. government is to calm the fears of key overseas grain buyers.

On Wednesday, a Japanese consumer group said it found traces of StarLink in a baking mix. That prompted Tokyo to ask Washington for assurances that no StarLink would seep into any more of its grain and food purchases.

``There are discussions underway now about what kinds of restrictions are needed'' to satisfy Japanese concerns, Pitts told the Senate Biotech Caucus, a newly formed group of lawmakers concerned about gene-spliced food issues and regulations. Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Pitts declined to elaborate.

``Whatever they need us to do, we will do,'' he added, referring to Japan.

Japan, like many European nations and Australia, has strict rules about bioengineered food and requires labels identifying any gene-spliced ingredients.

STARLINK COSTLY FOR FOODMAKERS

StarLink, a yellow corn containing a gene that repels destructive pests, is at the center of a U.S. controversy affecting farmers, grain elevators, commodity exporters and major foodmakers.

Instead of being kept carefully segregated for use only as animal feed or ethanol production, some StarLink was accidentally commingled with other varieties of yellow corn.

After determining Aventis failed to keep control of the corn, the USDA moved into action late last month to scoop up as much of the corn as possible and keep it under lock and key.

Of the total estimated 80 million bushels of StarLink corn grown by American farmers this year, about 1.2 million bushels have yet to be accounted for, Pitts said.

``There is about 1.2 million bushels we're trying to track down,'' he told the Senate caucus.

The USDA is also taking a closer look at what kinds of rules may be needed for segregating biotech grains to make sure they are channeled correctly to meet buyers' expectations, Pitts said. The department soon will issue a formal notice that it is looking at grain segregation issues, he said.

Aventis is expected to spend an estimated $100 million to repay farmers for the corn. That estimate, however, does not include the costs of disrupted production lines at food plants, expensive testing of corn flour for contamination, and consumer lawsuits for any allergic reactions to the corn.

EPA and USDA officials made it clear that Aventis bears full responsibility for the chaos reverberating throughout the food industry.

The EPA approval required Aventis to carefully label each bag of StarLink seed, spell out the restrictions in legal documents given to farmers and take other steps to ensure StarLink did not enter the human food supply.

``We thought that we had a sufficient stewardship program in place,'' said Jim Aidala, an EPA associate assistant administrator. ``The company didn't live up to its side of the bargain.''

AVENTIS FIGHTS BACK

On Wednesday, Aventis submitted 75 pages of new science data to the Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to win a temporary exemption for StarLink to appear in human food. Aventis said in the documents that four years would be needed for all the StarLink grown last year and this year to be harvested, processed, and consumed by Americans.

Steve Johnson, deputy EPA administrator, told the Senate panel that his agency would convene a group of independent scientists to review the new data. A decision will not be made for ``several weeks,'' he said.

``We have to do this in an open, transparent way,'' Johnson said. ``We cannot compromise the integrity of the science process.''

American environmental groups said they were concerned that the EPA was under heavy pressure from so many food companies to grant the exemption.

``We want to make sure that the EPA does not cave into the food industry's demands instead of considering all the consumer and science issues,'' said Richard Kaplan of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Farm state lawmakers who support biocrops, expressed concern that the StarLink recalls, food testing and trade issues could overshadow the benefits of bioengineered foods.

Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican, said the ``hysteria and a lack of knowledge'' about gene-modified foods could harm the biotech industry as it develops foods containing enhanced vitamins and nutritional content.

``We're not talking about poison here, we're talking about a potential allergy,'' Bond said, referring to StarLink.

The EPA, which is responsible for safe pesticides, regulates StarLink because it is genetically engineered to contain a type of pesticide. The USDA regulates field trials of new gene-altered crops before they are commercialized.

The Food and Drug Administration has authority to enforce the safety of biofoods for consumers, and can require labels if a food contains a potential allergen.