The mistake was in approving StarLink corn as an animal feed but not for human consumption. As the Aventis company and the USDA have discovered in trying to track down the corn and buy it back, it is just about impossible to separate the two. StarLink is one of several corns that have been genetically altered with the Bt trait to give them built-in protection from the corn borer. All other brands of Bt corn are approved for human consumption, but the Environmental Protection Agency withheld approval of StarLink pending more information about whether it might be capable of triggering allergies. It was approved as a livestock feed.
After traces of StarLink started turning up in taco shells, Aventis took the brand off the market, but corn from prior years' crops is still out there, and millions of bushels of it appear to have spread into the human food pipeline.
In retrospect, the trouble should have been foreseen. All corn looks pretty much alike. When a farmer shows up at the elevator with a load of corn, there's no way to tell by looking what brand it is. The load the farmer brings in may already be mixed from different fields, and once the corn is in the elevator all distinctions are lost.
Fortunately, there's a simple way to prevent a repeat of the fiasco. Genetically modified grain that isn't approved for human consumption shouldn't be approved as a livestock feed, either.
It's probably safe to say it's a mistake the EPA won't make again.
The Des Moines Register: Register editorial, Oct 24
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