Rockbites: Farm Aid urges EPA to stop genetically modified food

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Farm Aid urges EPA to stop genetically modified food
24 November 2000

Farm Aid, a non profit organization founded in 1985 by musicians Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp and which represents and assists US family farmers, has called on concerned citizens to email the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking them to deny retroactive approval of StarLink corn for human consumption and to initiate full testing.
    Aventis CropScience USA Ltd, who sell the corn, have asked the EPA to retroactively exempt StarLink from regulation, thereby allowing the product in human food and potentially nullifying the company’s massive liability to US family farmers and the US Department of Agriculture—not to mention insulating it from potential lawsuits. The EPA holds a public hearing on the issue next Tuesday (28 November) and is accepting comments by email now.
    StarLink corn, engineered to be toxic to insects via the gene-spliced protein Cry9C (derived from a soil bacterium, it destroys insects’ stomach cells), was mixed earlier this year with corn intended for human consumption. The modified gene may also have crossed into human-food corn via cross pollination. And this week Aventis announced that Cry9C has turned up in an unrelated corn hybrid produced by Iowa’s Garst Seed Company, the licensed producers of StarLink corn. No one knows, apparently, how it got there.
    Aventis and the EPA speak only of potential “allergic” reactions to StarLink corn. Neither has widely discussed potentical human toxicity of the pesticide. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved StarLink for animal feed only.
    Last week 16 US state attorneys general petitioned Aventis CropScience to do more to compensate US farmers for losses. The contamination has prompted massive, ongoing recalls of corn products in the US and South Korea. Aventis has estimated its liability to US farmers and to the Department of Agriculture has approached US$1 billion.
    Aventis CropScience USA Ltd is part of a global conglomerate based in France employing 92,000 and with annual worldwide sales exceeding $4 billion.
    Farm Aid suggests that you send your concerns to Mr. Paul Lewis at the EPA. | Farm Aid | | Aventis CropScience USA | | EPA | | EPA hearing notice | | top of page |

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