Ten U.S. food industry groups urge halt to "bio-pharm" crops (7/2/2003) | |
7 February 2003 TEN U.S. FOOD INDUSTRY GROUPS URGE HALT TO "BIO-PHARM" CROPS "The Grocery Manufactures of America, the Food Marketing Institute, the National Restaurant Association and seven other food groups said they feared unapproved biotech pharmaceutical crops could seep into the food supply and undermine consumer confidence." "...nearly half of U.S. farmers said they were undecided or opposed to growing pharmaceutical crops." 1.US food groups urge halt to "bio-pharm" crops *** 1.US food groups urge halt to "bio-pharm" crops Source - Reuters Securities News (Eng) WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Ten U.S. food industry groups on Thursday urged the government to halt "bio-pharm" crops until it implemented stricter regulations to prevent accidental contamination of other crops. "To minimize the possible risks, a clear system of regulatory enforcement and liability needs to be in place," said Mary Sophos, a vice president of the grocery manufacturers group. "Until then, no permits for new field trials or for commercialization should be issued by because there is no room for trial and error," she added. The food industry groups outlined their views in documents submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, which is developing industry guidelines with the U.S. Agriculture Department on planting medicine crops. Companies should be allowed to grow food plants for medical purposes only when there is no better alternative, the groups said. The federal government should also require farmers to use separate land and equipment when handling experimental crops. Tests must be readily available to detect any contamination of traditional food crops, the food industry said. The USDA in December ordered ProdiGene Inc., a small biotech firm, to spend an estimated $2.8 million to buy and destroy some 500,000 bushels of soybeans accidentally contaminated with a small amount of an experimental corn plant engineered to produce trypsin for diabetes. In a Reuters straw poll of 340 growers last month, nearly half of U.S. farmers said they were undecided or opposed to growing pharmaceutical crops. *** 2.US farmers reach $110 million StarLink settlement Source - Reuters Securities News (Eng) CHICAGO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. farmers reached a $110 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against two companies that engineered and marketed unapproved genetically modified StarLink corn that slipped into the U.S. food chain more than two years ago, lawyers said on Thursday. StarLink Logistics and Advanta USA agreed to pay $110 million plus interest to farmers whose crops were tainted with StarLink corn, or who suffered from a drop in corn prices due to the controversy over gene-spliced StarLink corn. Melvyn Weiss of the law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP said the preliminary settlement was approved on Wednesday by Judge James Moran of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. It still needs final approval. Traces of StarLink corn were detected in taco shells in September 2000, leading to a series of recalls of corn-based products from grocery shelves across the country. Some had also claimed that their non-StarLink corn crops were tainted by the variety grown in neighboring fields. *** 3.WHAT THE STARLINK FIASCO TELLS US http://ngin.tripod.com/farming.htm The Starlink fiasco started when in October 2000 traces of an Aventis GM corn [maize] called StarLink showed up in taco shells in the U.S. even though it was not approved for human consumption. It led to a massive recall of over 300 food brands. The 'StarLink' gene has also shown up unexpectedly in a second company's corn and in US corn exports. The Starlink fiasco has wide implications for the use of GM crops in farming. BIG CONTAMINATION FACTOR "Aventis CropScience Wednesday was at a loss to explain why another variety of corn besides its StarLink brand is producing the [StarLink] Cry9C protein." United Press International November 22, 2000, Second corn variety producing Cry9C On the possibility of unintentional mixing of GM and non-GM post-harvest, agronomist Dale Farnham says: "There are no safeguards." "The US Department of Agriculture claims to know where the maize banned from all food use globally and only recently approved for US exports is located. Aventis, the French firm which developed the genetically modified maize sold throughout the US maize belt in 1999 and 2000, says it knows, also. So do I: StarLink maize is everywhere." US agricultural journalist Alan Guebert writing in Farmers Weekly, December 8, 2000 BIG LEMMING FACTOR... F-F-F-F-FASHION! BIG ECONOMIC FACTOR BAD FUTURE FACTOR US corn farmer and GM seed salesman, Nebraska, Dec 2000: "....you guys [US Government] created this monster; you clean it up. I have learned my lesson. No more GMO crops on this farm ever." [quoted in UK 'Farmers Weekly' December 8, 2000] All quotes unless otherwise indicated taken from: Corn leaving bad taste in world markets as GMO worries build Reuters, Wednesday -- November 22, 2000 |