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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