Fwd: [GettingWell] Kraft Exec Wants Tougher Rules on Planting Crops for Drugs

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Kraft Exec Wants Tougher Rules On Planting Crops For Drugs (Posted:

04-Apr-03)

 

Chicago Sun-Times | BY SANDRA GUY | April 4, 2003

 

Kraft Co-CEO Betsy Holden is calling for stricter rules for planting

crops that are bio-engineered to produce pharmaceuticals.

 

The usually tight-lipped and regulation-averse Holden told an

agricultural forum that such crops, as well as genetically modified

animals, pose a threat to the food supply.

 

" Both share the same issue--the risk of commingling with the food

supply, the same problem that led to the recall a couple of years

ago of our Taco Bell products that were adulterated with StarLink

corn, " Holden said in a speech to the Outlook Forum in Arlington,

Va., sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

Kraft Foods voluntarily recalled its Taco Bell Home Originals taco

shells from grocery stores nationwide in September 2000 after its

tests confirmed the presence of StarLink corn, which is genetically

engineered. The corn had been approved by the Environmental

Protection Agency for use in animal feed, but not for human

consumption because it can trigger allergic reactions.

 

Asked to expand on Holden's comments, Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd

said if the federal government refuses to outlaw pharmaceutical

crops or to ban their planting in farm states, Northfield-based

Kraft " wants there to be every regulation possible so commingling

will not happen. "

 

A reporter for Congress Daily, a Capitol Hill news service, asked

Holden after her speech whether a tolerance level should be allowed

for pharmaceuticals in crops. Holden declined to answer, but she

said a trace amount of an allergen " could be extremely deadly, "

according to the Congress Daily report.

 

Holden also pointed to " close calls " in which the Agriculture

Department found traces of biopharmaceutical corn in a crop of

Nebraska soybeans and in a new corn crop in Iowa. Farmers had

planted the soybeans on top of the plowed-under corn.

ProdiGene Inc., a privately held biotech company based in College

Station, Texas, agreed to pay about $3 million in fines and costs

after the Nebraska mixup.

 

" Right now, public acceptance of biotechnology in America is

relatively high, " Holden said. " But how many more times can we test

the public's trust before we begin to lose it? " she asked.

The issue is gaining urgency because about 20 companies are splicing

corn, rice, soybeans, tobacco and other crops to try to mass-produce

medicines. Nationwide, 38 percent of the 79 million acres of corn

planted this year will be biotech, including corn genetically

engineered to resist insects and weedkiller, according to the

Associated Press.

 

Regulators have yet to approve products made from pharmaceutical

crops for commercial use, but the companies developing them want to

go to market in a few years.

 

Holden isn't alone in her complaints. Groups as varied as the

Grocery Manufacturers of America and environmental groups opposed to

genetically modified organisms in food have called for federal

regulators to crack down on biopharmaceutical farming.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization last fall endorsed a ban on

pharmaceutical crops in the Midwest and Plains states, but reversed

itself after farm-state lawmakers protested. Farmers see the new

technology as a potentially lucrative business because the crops

would sell for premium prices.

 

The Agriculture Department in March proposed new, stricter rules

governing pharmaceutical plants.

 

Pharmaceutical corn crops would have to be planted at least one mile

away from plants grown for human and livestock food, for example.

Current regulations call for a half-mile separation.

 

The proposed rules also call for land used to grow biopharm corn

crops to lie fallow for a year and for separate equipment to be used

in planting genetically engineered and conventional crops.

Mudd, the Kraft spokesman, said the company endorses the proposed

rules and wants farmers to guard their fields to ensure no one

steals the bio-engineered crops.

 

Opponents say such rules are unworkable and fail to take into

account today's sophisticated farming methods.

Henry I. Miller, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and former

director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of

Biotechnology, said Thursday that the proposed " one size fits all "

rules are unnecessary.

 

The likelihood that people would be injured by biopharm and

conventional crop mixups is highly unlikely, Miller said.

The regulations would stigmatize bio-engineered crops, inflate the

costs of developing them and result in far fewer new drugs for

consumers, he said.

 

 

 

 

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