Unapproved biotech corn discovered in food supply

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" News Update from The Campaign " <newsupdate

 

 

Unapproved biotech corn discovered in food supply

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 02:32:20 -0800

 

 

 

 

 

News Update From The Campaign

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

Oops, they did it again...

 

On Tuesday, the science journal Nature reported that hundreds of tons

of

genetically engineered corn never approved by U.S. regulators were sold

in

the U.S. and overseas from 2001 to 2004.

 

As we have come to expect from U.S. government agencies when mistakes

over

genetically engineered crops are discovered, we are being told there

are no

food safety or environmental concerns as a result of this major

blunder. Yet

there is little evidence to back up the claim that there is no need to

be

concerned.

 

The protein in the genetically engineered corn is identical to the

protein

in another biotech corn that has been reviewed and approved. But the

government agencies seem to be ignoring the fact that this protein is

in a

different insertion site and would have a different " scrambling " of

genomic

DNA.

 

Could this unapproved genetically engineered corn cause allergies in

humans?

No one can say for certain since it has never been adequately tested.

 

Even groups that have been quite supportive of biotech crops such as

the Pew

Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the Center for Science in the

Public Interest (CSPI) have expressed concern over this discovery.

 

Michael Rodemeyer, director of the Pew Initiative on Food and

Biotechnology,

states: " This will raise questions in the minds of countries that

import

food from the United States about whether we have adequate controls in

place. "

 

Greg Jaffe, biotech director for CSPI, states: " It proves this

technology is

hard to control and we have an industry that is not as diligent as we

would

like. "

 

If all genetically engineered foods were required to be safety tested

and

labeled we could avoid these repeated discoveries that something has

gone

wrong -- again.

 

Posted below are two articles. The first is an Associated Press article

titled " Tons of experimental biotech corn inadvertently sent to

farmers. "

The second article is from the web site of the science journal Nature

titled

" US launches probe into sales of unapproved transgenic corn. "

 

Craig Winters

President

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

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Tons of experimental biotech corn inadvertently sent to farmers

 

By PAUL ELIAS

AP Biotechnology Writer

Mar 23, 2005

 

Swiss biotechnology company Syngenta AG said Tuesday it mistakenly sold

to

farmers an experimental corn seed genetically engineered to resist bugs

that

was never approved by U.S. regulators, bolstering critics' claims that

the

industry needs tighter government scrutiny.

 

Hundreds of tons of the genetically engineered seeds and resulting corn

crop

were shipped in the United States and overseas between 2001 and 2004.

Federal investigators said there was no health or environmental risk

because

of the seed's similarity to another Syngenta product already approved

for

sale and consumption.

 

" While there are no safety concerns, the regulatory agencies are

conducting

investigations to determine the circumstances surrounding and extent of

any

violations of relevant laws and regulations, " said Cynthia Bergman, an

Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman. " The U.S. government is

also

communicating with our major trading partners to ensure they understand

there are no food safety or environmental concerns that could affect

trade. "

 

The Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration are

also

investigating, and the company faces a fine of up to $500,000, USDA

spokesman Jim Rogers said.

 

In trading Tuesday, U.S.-traded Syngenta shares fell 39 cents, or 1.8

percent, to close at $21.45 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock

has

traded in a 52-week range of $13.93 to $23.26.

 

Biotechnology critics say the fact that hundreds of tons of unapproved

corn

were planted in open fields for four years before Syngenta acknowledged

the

mistake shows that regulators and the industry can't now be trusted to

keep

genetically engineered organisms from contaminating the food supply.

 

They also complain that current government regulations are particularly

lax

once a genetically engineered crop has been approved for consumption.

 

Nearly half the nation's corn approved for market by the Department of

Agriculture is genetically modified, but many consumers want their

groceries

to be biotechnology-free, and are willing to pay a premium for food

they

trust to be organic.

 

Syngenta also acknowledged Tuesday that some of the unapproved corn may

have

been shipped overseas to countries that allow imports of either the

genetically engineered seed or of products made with the genetically

modified corn.

 

The United States and the European Union are in a bitter trade dispute

over

how strictly to regulate U.S. biotechnology imports. Syngenta

spokeswoman

Sarah Hull would not say whether EU countries have received the

unapproved

corn.

 

" Instead of building international confidence in genetic engineering,

the

industry continues to shoot itself in the foot, " said Greg Jaffe,

biotech

director for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest in

Washington D.C. " It proves this technology is hard to control and we

have an

industry that is not as diligent as we would like. "

 

The corn in question is spliced with bacteria genes to resist bugs

without

the need for pesticides. It differs from Syngenta's approved seeds only

in

terms of where the foreign genetic material is placed in the plant's

genome,

said Jeff Stein, head of Syngenta's U.S. regulatory affairs.

 

Syngenta also did not say where in the United States the corn was

grown,

other than to say it sprouted on a total of 37,000 acres in four states

-

representing less than 1 percent of all U.S. corn. Still, the

mislabeled

corn amounted to several hundred tons shipped over the last four years.

 

In 2000, the inadvertent planting and distributing of genetically

engineered

corn not approved for human consumption - so-called StarLink - cost the

food

industry an estimated $1 billion in recalled products.

 

No recalls for this wrongly shipped corn are planned, Hull said,

because the

government has declared the corn poses no health or environmental

risks. But

all unapproved plants and seeds Syngenta still had have been destroyed,

she

said. She declined to say how much the incident might cost the company.

 

Hull said the Swiss-based company discovered the mistake in

mid-December and

reported it immediately as required by law to federal authorities.

Syngenta

and the USDA said they didn't publicize the situation because of the

ongoing

investigation. The science journal Nature first reported the mishap on

its

Web site Tuesday.

 

***************************************************************

 

US launches probe into sales of unapproved transgenic corn

 

Nature - Published online: 22 March 2005

Colin Macilwain

 

Syngenta admits 150 square kilometres accidentally sown with wrong

seeds.

 

A strain of genetically modified corn that does not have regulatory

approval

has been distributed by accident over the past four years, Nature has

learned.

 

Syngenta, one of the world's largest agricultural biotechnology

companies,

revealed the mistake to US regulators at the end of last year. Although

the

crop is believed to be safe, the fact that it was sold for years by

accident

raises serious questions about how carefully biotechnology firms are

controlling their activities, critics say.

 

The corn (maize) was modified with a gene from the soil bacterium

Bacillus

thuringiensis (Bt), which is inserted into the crop to act as a

pesticide.

Syngenta has approval to sell a variety of the transgenic crop called

Bt11,

which has been used successfully for many years in the United States

and

elsewhere. The strain has been approved for consumption in the European

Union, for example, and may be one of the first food crops approved for

cultivation there.

 

But between 2001 and 2004, Syngenta inadvertently produced and

distributed

several hundred tonnes of Bt10 corn - a different genetic modification

that

has not been approved.

 

Since the release was discovered in late 2004, US government scientists

have

assessed the Bt10 corn - which differs from Bt11 by only a handful of

nucleotides on a section of the gene that does not code for the protein

toxin - and have concluded that it is safe to eat and poses no

environmental

threat.

 

" What makes this somewhat unique is that Bt10 and Bt11 are physically

identical and the proteins are identical, " says Jeff Stein, head of

regulatory affairs at Syngenta in Research Triangle Park, North

Carolina.

 

Sarah Hull, a spokeswoman for the company in Washington DC, adds that

Syngenta promptly reported the mistake to regulators after the

discovery.

She says this shows that the system is working as it should do. Company

officials also note that the release was relatively small. About 150

square

kilometres of the crop was planted over the four years, they say, which

is

0.01% of all corn planted in the United States during that period. As

Bt

corn seed has to be bought every year, rather than being gathered from

the

previous year's crop, the problem should not escalate.

 

Hard to swallow

 

But Michael Rodemeyer, director of the Pew Initiative on Food and

Biotechnology, a think-tank in Washington DC, says that the release

reflects

the absence of a thorough monitoring system for genetically modified

products in the US food supply. " This will raise questions in the minds

of

countries that import food from the United States about whether we have

adequate controls in place, " Rodemeyer says. " It will provide

ammunition for

critics of genetically modified food - and it may provide incentives

for

countries to look at non-genetically modified varieties. "

 

Syngenta discovered the mistake when one of its seed manufacturers,

which

was attempting to use the corn seeds in plant-breeding experiments,

informed

it that the seed was not Bt11.

 

Syngenta then told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food

and

Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which

are

jointly responsible for approving genetically modified crops.

Regulators and

the company have since been involved in months of discussions over what

should be done about the error, and how and when information should be

released to the public.

 

White House officials have also been involved in these sensitive talks,

partly because the United States and the European Union are locked in a

fierce trade dispute over whether tough European rules to trace the

flow of

genetically modified crops are scientifically necessary. Syngenta

officials

declined to list the countries that accidentally received the Bt10

seed.

 

In a statement released to Nature on 14 March, the EPA says that

regulatory

agencies are " conducting investigations to determine the circumstances

surrounding and extent of any violations of relevant laws and

regulations " .

The EPA says that it is investigating whether the Federal Insecticide,

Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act has been breached, and that the USDA is

looking at possible violations of the Plant Protection Act. " The US

government is also communicating with our major trading partners to

ensure

they understand there are no food safety or environmental concerns, " it

adds.

 

The last major, unintended release of a genetically modified crop in

the

United States occurred in 2000, when a Bt corn known as StarLink was

inadvertently planted for human consumption. Because of possible

allergic

reactions, StarLink had been approved for use only in animal feed.

Recall of

StarLink corn cost the food industry an estimated US$1 billion,

according to

Rodemeyer, and lent impetus to global concerns about the safety of

genetically modified food.

 

 

 

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