GMO Food Contamination is
Forever
A top executive at Aventis CropScience,
maker of StarLink
Corn, said that the food supply will never
be rid of the new strain of corn that the company genetically
engineered at Research Triangle Park. The executive, John Wichtrich, called
for a change in federal regulations to allow some level of the engineered
StarLink corn in human food. The product is now approved only for animal
feed and industrial products such as ethanol.
But the environmental watchdog who first discovered the new corn in food
objected sharply. "Aventis broke the promise of biotechnology," said Larry
Bohlen of Friends of the Earth in Washington, D.C. "They were supposed to
improve the quality of our food, not cause so many problems and introduce
so much risk."
Wichtrich, general manager of Aventis in RTP, said that 437 million additional
bushels of StarLink have been found in storage, which is much more than
previously thought. About 50 million bushels of StarLink corn were grown
under license during 2000, and Starlink was inadvertently mixed into another
20 million bushels. Last fall, Bohlen discovered
StarLink corn in
Kraft taco shells at a Maryland grocery store. The discovery led to a
recall of almost 300 food products. Now, Wichtrich said, "no matter how diligent
our collective efforts are, we can never get to, or guarantee, 'zero.' "
Because the StarLink corn can never be cleaned out of the U.S. food supply,
Wichtrich said, Aventis wants the Environmental Protection Agency to change
its rules. The EPA now has a "zero-tolerance" policy, meaning it views any
amount of the StarLink corn in the U.S. food supply as a violation.
One kernel of StarLink corn in a sample of 2,400 kernels would cause a load
of corn to be rejected, Wichtrich said. EPA should give Aventis an exception
or revise its policy to tolerate a certain level of StarLink in food, he
said. But Bohlen said, "Aventis is asking the
government to legalize genetic pollution." Until the Centers for
Disease Control finishes its study, no one will know whether the StarLink
corn causes allergic reactions, he said.
CDC is investigating the claims of 44 people who said they got sick after
eating corn products, he said. Wichtrich said only dry-milled corn products
-- those made from corn meal, grits and flour -- are in danger of being
contaminated. Wet milling, which produces corn syrup and oil, kills the protein,
he said. Aventis, which employs 550 people at its North America headquarters
in RTP, has taken hundreds of angry phone calls from farmers, grain elevator
managers and food processors.
Aventis has 87 people working on
rerouting the corn, and another group of scientists looking into the allergy
question, Wichtrich said.
Organic Consumers Association March 2002
While the StarLink corn debacle
is not a serious issue for most people, it is an ominous example of how widely
genetic engineering can penetrate our food supply. Once the genetic genie
is out of the bottle, our current technology and resources won't be able
to stuff it back inside. If Monsanto or some other corporate giant develops
a crop that does unleash some unanticipated problems, we are in big trouble,
and no three wishes can save us. These were my related statements from last
year:
Investigators have found that rats fed genetically modified potatoes had
an increased thickening in the lining of their stomach and intestine and
a weakening of their immune system. And now these mad scientists want to
put vaccines into the plants. Sheer lunacy.
What these geniuses have failed
to fully appreciate is that once these plants are growing, it is physically
impossible to prevent them from pollinating other plants and contaminating
them with these new proteins -- we have no clue of these proteins long-term
consequences.
The entire process is mind-boggling.
The vaccines they are using don't even work, yet they are willing to sacrifice
the food supply for it. If this insanity continues, our grandchildren may
not have access to any non-genetically modified food, and the health of our
society will continue to decline rapidly.
One of the keys to health is
good food. Although most of us don't choose to do so, we can still purchase
real, unaltered food in this country. The future does not appear to provide
that option.
Genetically modified foods did
not exist prior to 1995. Ninety percent of the money Americans spend on food
is spent on processed foods and seventy percent of processed foods have
genetically modified foods in them. There are NO STUDIES with humans on what
happens when one consumes genetically modified foods. The FDA has ASSUMED
that they are equivalent to the original and never required any studies to
have them approved. This is despite the fact that this technology has never
existed in the history of the world before.
Absolutely brilliant! Especially
in light of the US Federal track record on genetically engineered safety,
which is terrible.
Last year Starlink corn was
only approved for animal consumption -- NOT human consumption. This was due
to a concern that it could cause allergies in humans. Well, Starlink corn
wound up trapped in the human food supply, despite FDA
precautions.
There are EIGHT different agencies
in the US regulating biotechnology under TWELVE different sets of laws. NONE
of the laws had biotechnology in mind when they were passed, as they are
40-50 years old.
This is one big disaster just
waiting to happen.
Related
Articles:
Even
Mice Don't Like Genetically Modified Food
GMO
Crops Are An Accident Waiting to Happen
Genetically
Modified Foods Update
Drug
Company Owns Monsanto and Their Weed Killer Is What Funds GMO
Crops
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