|
4 april 2001
"stop contaminated us corn exports"
more than 100 groups
worldwide say to president bush
concern over more contamination and
unresolved reports of illnesses is
increasing
More than 100 consumer, agriculture and
environmental groups from around the world
called on U.S. President George Bush today to
suspend further exports of U.S. corn and corn
products unless the U.S. government can
guarantee that they are free of genetically
engineered StarLink corn and safe for human
consumption. In their joint letter to
President Bush, the groups also called on the
U.S. to recall all food products, commercial
grain imports and food aid contaminated by
StarLink.
"The U.S. should not be exporting
genetically contaminated food to other
countries," said Ricardo Navarro, Chair of
Friends of the Earth International and a
resident of El Salvador. "If it is not
approved for people to eat in the U.S. then
it should not be sent elsewhere."
Concern has risen with the announcement on
March 18th by Aventis, the giant
biotechnology company that created StarLink,
that contamination is wider spread than
thought. While 70 million bushels (1.8
million metric tonnes) of corn from the 2000
harvest were contaminated, Aventis reported
an additional 430 million bushels (11 million
metric tonnes) in storage from 1999 are also
contaminated. The bacterial protein
engineered into StarLink to make it toxic to
pests has also been found in seeds of other
varieties of corn prior to the 2001 planting
season prompting a $20 million U.S.
government program to find and destroy them.
The contamination is likely due to a failure
to prevent cross-pollination.
The possible health impacts of StarLink
are still unresolved. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and Centers for Disease
Control are still investigating 48 reports of
unexplained allergic reactions that occurred
after people ate corn products. The health
complaints about StarLink are the first
lodged by consumers against an engineered
food.
The U.S. continues to export corn that is
contaminated with StarLink to Asia and
possibly to other regions. Although StarLink
was found in the U.S. food supply on
September 18th, 2000, Japan reports repeated
findings of StarLink as recently as February
and a contaminated Kellogg Company food
product was found in the U.S. in March.
"The discovery of StarLink in Japan and
South Korea, two of the largest purchasers of
U.S. corn, means this genetically modified
corn could be elsewhere. Since the U.S.
government and the Aventis biotech company
have not controlled the contamination, other
countries should not permit the import of any
U.S. corn or corn-based products until they
are guaranteed to be clean" said Meena Raman,
a resident of Malaysia and Asia coordinator
for the Friends of the Earth International
GMO Programme.
Groups in developing countries are also
expressing concerns that StarLink may be
shipped as food aid in a desperate movement
to get rid of StarLink. Over two million tons
of GMOs are sent directly by U.S. foreign
assistance to developing countries, while the
World Food Program distributes another one
and a half million tons of transgenic crops
donated by the U.S. government (1). "We are
strongly opposed to any shipment of StarLink
as food aid. It is outrageous to think that
the U.S. may be using food aid as a back door
market for products like StarLink," said
Karin Nansen a resident of Uruguay and Latin
American coordinator for the Friends of the
Earth International GMO Programme.
StarLink is not approved for human
consumption in the U.S. because the bacterial
protein engineered into the corn by the giant
biotechnology company Aventis has
"characteristics of known allergens"
according to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. The discovery of StarLink
in food products has driven many U.S. food
companies to recall raw grain and more than
300 products made with U.S. yellow corn, both
in the U.S. and in countries that import from
the U.S. But, contaminated products are still
appearing.
"The StarLink case clearly shows that
biotech companies do not control their
genetically modified inventions. Once they
are released into the environment they are
nearly impossible to call back," said Larry
Bohlen of Friends of the Earth U.S.
Impacts of StarLink on U.S. corn exports
are beginning to show. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture said Brazil recently became a net
exporter of corn for the first time since
1982 as foreign buyers turn their backs on
the U.S. looking for sources of
non-engineered corn.
more information:
For a copy of the StarLink letter to
President Bush with 100 signers listed,
see:
www.foei.org
,
or www.foe.org/safefood
For an extensive story on the testing of
people that may have been made sick by
StarLink, see
The Washington Post at:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23092-2001Mar18.html
For the list of commercial food products
that have been recalled, see:
www.fda.gov/opacom/Enforce.html, search term
StarLink
For background information on the initial
StarLink discovery in food, see:
www.gefoodalert.org/recall
For a list corn imports by country, see
(USDA: Grain: World Markets and Trade,
February 2001, page 19):
http://www.fas.usda.gov/grain/circular/2001/02-01/All.pdf
Worldwide top ten U.S. corn customers:
http://www.ncga.com/03world/main/corn_consumption_exports.html
Contacts:
Asia: Meena Raman, Sahabat Alam Malaysia,
60-4-8905846 (Malaysia)
Central America and South America: Ricardo
Navarro, Friends of the Earth International,
503 2206479 (El Salvador) and Maria Selva
Ortiz, Uruguay, FoE Uruguay, 598 632 20800
(Uruguay)
Europe: Gill Lacroix, Friends of the Earth
Europe, 32-2-542-0182 (Belgium)
North America: Larry Bohlen, Friends of
the Earth U.S., 01-202-783-7400 ext. 251
(1) Food First. 2000. Food aid in the new
millennium (
http://www.foodfirst.org
)
|
