Pharm Aid - contaminated U.S. aid shipments to Guatemala

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GMW: Pharm Aid - contaminated U.S. aid shipments to Guatemala

 

" GM WATCH " <info

Tue, 1 Mar 2005 10:04:37 GMT

 

 

 

 

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Pharm Aid - contaminated U.S. aid shipments to Guatemala

 

 

" This isn't the first time developing countries have been less than

pleased to use our science experiments for their sustenance. In 2002 the

Bolivian Forum on Environment and Development said their World Food

Program sacks of corn were contaminated by StarLink. The U.S., a primary

contributor to the WFP, is the only country in the world to have ever

grown Starlink. "

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Pharm Aid

Genetically altered corn, banned for health reasons, pops up in U.S.

aid shipments to Guatemala

by Aina Hunter

February 28th, 2005

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0509,hunter,61585,6.html

 

Latin American environmentalists are criticizing our food aid again

after a genetically altered type of corn banned for health reasons was

found in the shipments.

 

The problem is StarLink, a type of genetically altered corn that

generates its very own, built-in pesticide. It seems to cause allergy

symptoms and asthma, so it's not EPA-approved. Still, a few weeks ago

StarLink

was detected in bags of World Food Program corn, and now activists in

six Latin American countries are denouncing the U.S. for trying to palm

off dangerous food on the Guatemalan poor.

http://www.humboldt.org.ni/transgenicos/denuncia_englishfeb16.htm

 

Five years ago, U.S. factories shut down and supermarkets pulled corn

chips, taco shells, and grits off the shelves after more than 300

different kinds of corn products were found tainted with StarLink,

which is

supposed to be used only for animal feed and to manufacture

ethanol.People were getting sick right and left, and the fiasco cost

StarLink

developer Aventis CropScience hundreds of millions of dollars.

http://www.platformgentechnologie.nl/genetech/thema_incidenten/starlink_panel.ht\

ml

 

StarLink was introduced in '98, but by the year '00 it was all mixed up

in our food supply. Aventis argued that growers weren't isolating it,

as they were supposed to, which led to pollen drift.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0153.html

 

In addition, grain processors inadvertently mixed StarLink with regular

corn at mills and in grain elevators. It seems that no one knew the

stuff was so dangerous.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/sueaventis.cfm

 

When that word got around,alarms went off around the world as countries

demanded that the U.S. stop trying to export StarLink.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-ng.asp?id=40422-consumers-urge-ban

 

The Japanese cut U.S. corn imports by 50 pecent when they detected it

in samples the U.S. Department of Agriculture said was free of StarLink.

The Koreans banned American corn all together after detecting StarLink

in a shipment of tortillas that the USDA also said was clean. After

that, even starving countries like India and Zambia started getting picky.

http://www.biotech-info.net/india_says_no.html

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s714981.htm

 

The biotech industry maintains that no one has ever proven that

StarLink is bad for you. Nevertheless, after the scare, the EPA

" encouraged "

the developer to take it off the market. As for the huge surplus,

leftover StarLink was to be fed to animals or and churned into

ethanol. And,

apparently, sold to the World Food Program.

 

All evidence to the contrary, the U.S. denies sending StarLink

overseas. Ed Loyd, a spokesman for the USDA, says all corn destined

for the WFP

is tested for StarLink. He says he can't explain why Genetic I.D., an

Iowa-based laboratory, says that 80 percent of the samples they took

from aid packages to six countries tested positive for various

genetically

modified organisms (only the Guatemalans were treated to Starlink), but

he told the Voice that the tests the USDA used came out clean.

http://www.genetic-id.com/

 

This isn't the first time developing countries have been less than

pleased to use our science experiments for their sustenance. In 2002 the

Bolivian Forum on Environment and Development said their World Food

Program sacks of corn were contaminated by StarLink. The U.S., a primary

contributor to the WFP, is the only country in the world to have ever

grown Starlink.

 

 

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