EXCERPTS:

The federal government kept it secret for three months...

the government's secrecy about the mistake raises serious concerns, according to independent experts.

...Kendall Lamkey, the head of Iowa State University's plant-breeding center [says]... the way the federal government kept the mistake secret is alarming and may undermine public confidence in genetically modified crops... [Lamkey] served on a National Academy of Sciences panel in 2002 on the environmental impact of genetically modified crops.

[Here's another interesting bit]
EPA scientists reviewed seven packets of information from Syngenta from Jan. 7 to March 10, and "as more data came in, the confidence of our scientific determination [of no risk] increased" [ie they weren't that confident at the point they decided to stay stumm. clearly they decided to avoid a starlink style recall and sit on their hands while they conducted a post-release 'safety evaluation' in the hope of finding it safe!]
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U.S. quiet about sale of altered corn
By Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Associated Press
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2002216446_corn23.html

WASHINGTON - The federal government kept it secret for three months that genetically modified corn seed was sold accidentally to some U.S. farms for four years and may have gotten into the U.S. food supply.

The accidental use of unapproved seed became public when the scientific journal Nature published a story about it yesterday.

The U.S. food supply and plant and animal stocks weren't harmed and remain safe to eat, according to officials of the seed company and the government.

But the government's secrecy about the mistake raises serious concerns, according to independent experts.

Syngenta, a Swiss-based company, distributed the unapproved genetically altered corn seed, Bt 10, which was engineered to resist bugs. It mixed the Bt 10 with a similar and approved corn seed called Bt 11, company officials said yesterday. The Bt 10 was modified with a gene from the pesticidelike bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.

Hundreds of tons of the genetically engineered seeds and resulting corn crop were shipped in the United States and overseas between 2001 and 2004.

Spokesmen for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said there was no need to notify the public because the government had determined that Bt 10 was safe. The USDA is investigating the incident, and the seed company faces up to $500,000 in fines, Agriculture Department spokesman Jim Rogers said.

"Most of the corn is used for industrial and animal use," company spokeswoman Sarah Hull said. "It may have gotten into the food supply, but regardless, the proteins are deemed safe, and there's no food concern."

Remaining seeds have been destroyed or isolated, Hull said.

Syngenta's U.S. headquarters is in Greensboro, N.C. It runs its seed operation out of Golden Valley, Minn.

"I personally don't see it would be a major issue," said Kendall Lamkey, the head of Iowa State University's plant-breeding center. But the way the federal government kept the mistake secret is alarming and may undermine public confidence in genetically modified crops, said Lamkey, who served on a National Academy of Sciences panel in 2002 on the environmental impact of genetically modified crops.

In mid-December, Syngenta told the EPA, the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration about the mistake, Hull said.

EPA scientists reviewed seven packets of information from Syngenta from Jan. 7 to March 10, and "as more data came in, the confidence of our scientific determination [of no risk] increased," EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said in an e-mail. "Had there been a human health concern, we would have alerted the public immediately."

Syngenta did not say where in the United States the corn was grown, other than to say it sprouted on a total of 37,000 acres in four states, representing less than 1 percent of all U.S. corn.

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