Growers of biotech corn say they weren't warned

StarLink tags appear to indicate it's suitable for human food products.

By WILLIAM RYBERG
Register Business Writer
10/25/2000 

Copyright, 2000, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company

Butler County farmer Jim Norton says he received no special warnings last
spring when he purchased seed for StarLink, the corn that has prompted the
recall of taco shells and other corn-based food products.

He said the fine print on a tag attached to the bag appears to say that
corn grown from the genetically engineered seed can be used for food.
Norton planted 115 acres of the corn. Now, he has more than 20,000 bushels
of it standing in the field while he tries to figure out what to do with it.
StarLink is the corn that has not been approved for human consumption,
which is why food products that contain it have been recalled.

StarLink's manufacturer, North Carolina-based Aventis CropScience, has said
that farmers were supposed to have been warned when they purchased the seed
that they needed to keep the corn separate from other corn that might end
up as human food.

The reason for the segregation is that StarLink contains a protein that can
cause allergic reactions in humans. Government officials have said there is
no evidence of health problems associated with the corn, but they are
concerned because it has shown up in food-processing plants, where it's not
supposed to be.

Norton, who farms near Clarksville, north of Waterloo, said he was never
told to segregate StarLink from other corn, and it now appears that many
other farmers were not told either. An estimated 9 million bushels of
StarLink corn are unaccounted for and are believed to have entered a
storage and transportation system through which they could end up in
food-processing plants.

No one is sure how many farmers are in Norton's situation.
A spokesman said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller's office had received
about a dozen calls from StarLink growers. "Most tell us they were not told
about the restriction," said Miller aide Bob Brammer.
The attorney general's office is trying to help farmers and grain elevators
deal with the problem.
The situation has caused confusion for farmers who grew StarLink corn and
uncertainty for grain-elevator operators who may have mixed it with other
corn because they did not know that StarLink needed to segregated.
Miller said the complicated restrictions associated with StarLink raise a
common-sense question: Why would farmers buy the seed if they knew there
were so many conditions attached to growing the crop?
"I just don't think if the restrictions were disclosed many farmers would
have bought the grain," Miller said.
Norton said he thought StarLink could be grown and sold like any other
corn. A tag on the seed bags seemed to say so, Norton said.It says: "You
are licensed upon purchase of this product only to produce forage or grain
for food, feed or grain processing."
A spokesman for Garst Seed Co. of Slater, the company that sold most of the
StarLink seed in Iowa, said seed dealers were advised of the restrictions,
and one tag on seed bags told farmers to check a grower's guide about
restrictions.
Jim Erickson, the dealer who sold the seed to Norton, said he didn't recall
receiving any information about restrictions. He said the seed bags bore
nothing that he considered to be a warning label. Erickson is manager of
the Fredericksburg Farmers Co-op.
Rick Roundtree, a spokesman for StarLink developer Aventis, said he had
been told that a majority of some 3,200 growers nationwide signed
agreements promising to grow the crop according to the restrictions.
Aventis estimates that StarLink was planted on about 135,000 acres in Iowa
this year. The acreage makes up 40 percent of the cropland planted to
StarLink nationally. The Iowa acreage represents only 1 percent of the
state's corn acreage.
Norton said the StarLink he purchased was a good buy, $56 a bag, compared
with common prices of about $120. The discount was part of a package deal
that included buying herbicide designed to be used with StarLink.
Jeff Lacina, a Garst spokesman, said Garst had sent information on
restrictions to seed dealers over the past two years.
More than a dozen mailings have gone out to sales representatives, and
information has been provided at sales meetings, Lacina said.
A tag on seed sacks advised farmers to check a grower's guide for
restrictions and gave a telephone number to obtain a guide if the farmer
didn't have one, Lacina said.
Norton said he first learned of the restrictions when letters arrived a few
weeks ago, explaining that Aventis was trying to isolate StarLink corn to
assure that it didn't get into human food.
Aventis spokesman Roundtree said seed companies that sold StarLink were
responsible for telling growers about restrictions.
Aventis, however, bears final responsibility for seeing that the product is
used as it should be, Roundtree said. "Obviously, we failed in some way at
that task," he said.
Neil Hamilton, director of the agricultural law center at Drake University
in Des Moines, said StarLink raises a variety of legal questions about
liability.
"This is kind of one of those classic situations where lawyers are going to
be hauled in to sort out what it means," Hamilton said.