GM maize: a dangerous experiment
Syngenta distributed an unauthorised insect resistant maize
Bt10,instead of the GE maize Bt11, which is approved in a number
ofcountries around the world. The discovery happened late in 2004,
butinstead of informing farmers and consumers straight away,
Syngentaentered into secret talks with the US government over how
they shouldtell the public.
According to article in Nature, US regulators only
consideredwhether the Bt10 maize was safe for human consumption in
late 2004,after the contamination was reported to the US
government. This meansthat for four years, consumers eating
products containing GE corn maywell have eaten some Bt10 -
completely untested for environmental orfood safety. Even now, it's
not clear what food safety testing, if any,was actually done on
Bt10.
"This is the latest in a long series of contamination events
anddemonstrates once again that GE crops can't be controlled, even
by thecompanies that develop them" said Doreen Stabinsky, GE
campaigner. "Thelong time that this contamination took to be
discovered shows the lackof adequate checks made by the industry
and the complete absence ofadequate controls by the US government.
Even more worrying is thesecrecy and delay in making this known to
the public, who are theunwitting consumers of GE products with no
safety testing."
This unauthorized strain of GE maize could have been grown
inseveral other countries, such as Argentina, South Africa and
Uruguay,where Bt11 is approved for cultivation. Syngenta has until
now refusedto reveal what other countries may have received
contaminated seed.Equally unknown are the countries that
unwittingly received exports ofthe unapproved maize from the United
States, the volume of contaminatedmaize that might have been
exported, and the extent of contamination inmanufactured food
products.
The illegal GE corn could be in many products worldwide, and
henceall products that may contain Bt10 maize should be taken from
shopshelves and all fields growing GE maize that may be
contaminated withBt10 should be destroyed, with compensation
provided to farmers.
Stabinsky stated "The US
government'srole in this GE contamination cannot be overlooked.
Whilst trying toforce countries worldwide to accept GMOs they
continue to preside overcase after case of illegal and dangerous GE
contamination. When this isthe model of GMO regulation that the US
is trying to force upon othercountries - by its WTO case against
the EU and by its constantinterference in the Biosafety Protocol
negotiations - then the USGovernment should not be surprised when
the reaction of the rest of theworld is to tell them to get their
own house in order, and to stopspreading genetic contamination all
over the planet."
Update:
15 April: EU bans types of
contaminated US maize feed containing unauthorised GE genes. More
from our EU unit website.
18 April:
Despite ban GMO corn gluten feed from US unloaded in Rotterdam
harbour.