USDA Sold Potentially Toxic Corn to Food and Feed Handler

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USDA Sold Potentially Toxic Corn to Food and Feed Handler

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES

 

For Immediate Release

Contacts: Larry Bohlen, FoE,

202-270-1547

May 16, 2003

Chris Bedford,

HSUS, 240-432-7520

cell, 515-283-0777

 

Jerry Rosman,

712-579-1130

 

USDA Sold Potentially Toxic Corn to Food and Feed Handler May Have Violated

Cargill Policy and Monsanto Grower Agreement

 

 

DES MOINES, IOWA – An environmental group and an animal welfare organization

today jointly released evidence that, for a second time, the United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA) sold corn that one of its own researchers said

might be toxic. The groups raised concern that the suspect corn may end up being

used as animal feed or even in grocery products, posing a risk to health. The

corn, a genetically engineered variety not approved for sale as food in the

European Union, was apparently delivered to a Cargill processing facility in

Blair, Neb.

 

Friends of the Earth (FoE) and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)

obtained copies of receipts for sale of more than 18,000 bushels of corn

marketed by the Commodities Credit Corporation on behalf of the USDA’s Farm

Services Agency (FSA). It was sold Feb. 3 to Feb. 6 to Koster Grain Company, a

handler of corn for food and feed in Carroll, Iowa. The USDA’s own researchers

suspect the corn caused severe reproductive problems in pigs in Iowa. It is also

a variety genetically engineered by Monsanto (MON) to be resistant to the

herbicide Roundup.

 

According to a May 15 report on CropChoice.com, “one of the haulers, who wished

to remain anonymous, said he took the corn to the Cargill plant in Blair, Neb.”

Cargill has an explicit policy to reject Roundup Ready corn at its Blair, Neb.

facility since the European Union and other export markets won’t accept this

type of genetically engineered corn. The policy is posted on Cargill’s Web site

and in its e-mail newsletter to growers. To avoid these problems, Monsanto

requires growers to deliver its Roundup Ready corn to designated handlers. As of

May 15, Koster

 

Grain was not on the American Seed Trade Association’s list of handlers that

accept Roundup Ready corn (see http://asta.farmprogress.com–no www.).

 

“It appears that the USDA violated an Iowa farmer’s grower agreement with

Monsanto and they may have sold Cargill truckloads of corn that nobody would

want to get caught using as food,” said Lori Sokolowski a member of the Iowa

Farmers Union.

 

The corn originated on the farm operated by Jerry Rosman, an Iowa farmer whose

hogs suffered unexplained reproductive failure in 2000 and 2001. A lead

researcher at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Ames, Iowa, wrote in

August that, “one possible cause of this problem may be the presence of an

unanticipated, biologically active, chemical compound within the corn.”

Researchers at Iowa State later released a statement saying that genetically

engineered Bt corn was not the cause

of swine reproductive failures experienced by numerous local farmers.

 

The researchers did not conclude whether some other aspect of the corn was

causing the problems.

 

“This is worse than USDA oversights involving biopharmaceutical corn

contamination of soybeans last year. In this case, the USDA is the party

responsible for putting a crop with a potentially harmful substance into food

and feed channels,” said Larry Bohlen, director of Health and Environment

Programs at Friends of the Earth.

 

In a letter to the USDA last fall, FoE urgently appealed to USDA Secretary

Veneman to obtain all of the corn to save it for science, as well as keep it off

the market until researchers find the source of reproductive problems. The USDA

wrote a response, Oct. 29, saying that USDA “scientists are testing the corn to

determine if it contains a novel toxin that might impact swine production.”

 

Then in a fax from FSA to Friends of the Earth Feb. 5, an FSA official claims

that the USDA tested for one compound known to cause reproductive problems in

lab animals and could not find it, but “did not

test the samples for any other compounds.” Farmer and environmental advocates

have asked the USDA why the corn was sold before the mystery was solved and when

they expect the investigation to be completed.

 

" At a time when independent hog farmers are struggling with record-low prices,

they cannot afford to be impacted by a problem that has been largely ignored by

the USDA. We hope that the USDA will take action before more farmers like Jerry

Rosman are forced out of business, " said Chris Bedford, Farm Animal and

Sustainable Agriculture Campaign coordinator.

 

By a twist of legal fate, the USDA’s FSA took possession of 19,000 bushels of

corn from the 2001 Rolling R Farm harvest in Harlan, Iowa. It was used as

collateral on a loan to the operation once managed by farmer Jerry Rosman. USDA

officials in Washington, D.C., had directed the FSA to not sell the corn for

food or feed. The FSA attempted in late 2002 to sell the corn for ethanol

production to Tall Corn Ethanol, a local

 

processor, which rejected it. A byproduct of ethanol is gluten, used in animal

feed and human food, raising concern that any problem with the corn might enter

the food chain. The FSA sale in February follows one

it made in January of 950 bushels to G & R Grain and Feed Company of Portsmouth,

Iowa.

 

The reproductive problem experienced by Rosman’s sows is called pseudopregnancy

and is characterized by false pregnancy, in which the animal exhibits the signs

of pregnancy for a full term but carries no

fetus. The Rolling R Farm is not the only operation to suffer the problem.

 

According to IFU, which has been running radio announcements and print ads with

HSUS in Farm News and Iowa Farmer Today (NE & NW editions) to assess the extent

of the problem, more than 20 farmers have been impacted. The organizations

continue to take calls from concerned farmers, and they plan to put these

farmers in touch with researchers interested in solving the pregnancy problems.

 

# # #

 

More information on the suspect corn, including an exchange of letters with the

USDA, may be found at www.foe.org Information about Jerry Rosman’s effort to

save his corn for science may be found at

www.SaveJerrysCorn.com. A three-part investigative TV report airing May 15-17

should be available at www.WHOTV.com (video of part 1 is posted under “Iowa

Farmer Blames Corn for Infertility in Sows,” text of part 1 is at

http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1270118 & nav=5ZinFpZZ

and text for part 2 is at

 

 

http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1280176 & nav=5ZinFqYW).

 

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/bohlenonpigs051903.cfm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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