Administration kept mum about unapproved modified corn sold

[cthrumatrix]

Administration kept mum about unapproved modified corn sold

Tue Mar 22, 6:25 PM ET Top Stories - Knight Ridder Newspapers


By Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The federal government kept it secret for three months that genetically modified corn seed was sold accidentally to some U.S. farms for four years and may have gotten into the American food supply.


The accidental use of unapproved seed became public when the scientific journal Nature published a story about it Tuesday.


The corn seed was probably safe. America's food supply and plant and animal stocks weren't harmed and remain safe to eat, according to officials of the seed company and the federal government.


But the government's secrecy about the mistake - one affecting the public food supply - raises serious concerns, according to independent experts.

snip

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/krwashbureau/20050322/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_farm_modifiedcorn_wa&sid=84439559

Where is the Senate on this ? We need a special session ASAP.

[Trillo]

1. Wecome to the New Corporate Order. nt

[Demit]

2. effing bastards

[TheFarseer]

3. great, now......

Now farmers can produce even more corn than normal and it will all be perfectly safe BUT, and this is the beautiful part, it will be bad, evil genetically altered corn so they can practically steal it from the farmers when the markets crash even further because of that scare AND, you're going to love this, the chemical companies have already made their money and it won't affect sales for coming years. So you see it worked out for everyone except stupid farmers and we want them all to go broke so that corporations can take over farming anyway.

[UpInArms]

4. and with only data from the corporation that

concocts their witches brew of goo to go on

EPA scientists reviewed seven packets of information from Syngenta from Jan. 7 to March 10, and "as more data came in, the confidence of our scientific determination (of no risk) increased," EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said in an e-mail. "Had there been a human health concern, we would have alerted the public immediately."

I am not too certain that I believe the assurances.

As a matter of fact, I am absolutely certain that I am not assured at all.

[Journeyman]

5. The corn seed was "probably" safe.

The corn seed was probably safe.

Well, I'll probably sleep easy tonight. Probably not win the lottery, too. But there is that chance. . .

[cthrumatrix]

6. our Senators don't seem concerned about our food supply ...only terra

[Al-CIAda]

7. Wonderful -and don't forget the mercury poisoning scandal.

What will kill us first?

Frankencorn, mercury poisoning, bankruptcy?

WE are fucked, pick your poison.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. More details on the accidentally released GM corn in New Scientist article

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7188

Unapproved GM corn found in US food chain

13:04 23 March 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Kurt Kleiner

A Swiss company accidentally sold unapproved genetically modified seed corn in the US for four years. The mistake resulted in about 133 million kilograms of the corn making its way into the food chain.

Officials for the company, Syngenta, and the US Environmental Protection Agency insist there is no danger to human health. But the EPA and the US Department of Agriculture are investigating to see if any laws or regulations were broken. The EPA confirmed the investigation was underway in a statement to the journal Nature.

Between 2001 and 2004, Syngenta accidentally sold an unapproved corn variety called Bt 10, mistaking it for the approved variety Bt 11. Both varieties produce a bacterial toxin that kills insects, using the same inserted gene and producing the same protein. The only difference is the location of the inserted gene, Syngenta says.

(snip)

"This really makes us wonder what else is in corn that has not been approved but that has been field tested. It seems that companies either won't or can't control it," says Jane Rissler, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC, US.

(snip - more at link)

THIS time the genetically modified variant is probably benign, but what if it had been something horrible, like one of Monsanto's experimental grains with the "terminator" gene? That is intended to force farmers to use new seed each time, and if it somehow spread, there could be a global disaster:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3103046
Title: "Terminator Gene Technology"...Will Monsanto etal create a worldwide food shortage for profit?

Edited to add: Recommended for Greatest

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. A reminder: this time was apparently benign, but what if TERMINATOR GENE

containing GM food crop escaped instead? What if the gene, which blocks the formation of seed, spread into other crops? Worldwide famine so Monsanto and other corporations can make profits selling seed for sterile plants?

Read this older DU thread and think about it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3103046
Thread title: "Terminator Gene Technology"...Will Monsanto etal create a worldwide food shortage for profit?

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. "Probably Safe"...IF I had a CHOICE, I would NEVER buy Genetically

modified foods. "Probably Safe" doesn't cut it for me and my family. Assholes.

[rodeodance]

11. U.S. quiet about sale of altered corn (Pattern of secretcy)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002216446_corn23.html

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.

U.S. quiet about sale of altered corn

By Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The federal government kept it secret for three months that genetically modified corn seed was sold accidentally to some U.S. farms for four years and may have gotten into the U.S. food supply.

The accidental use of unapproved seed became public when the scientific journal Nature published a story about it yesterday.

The U.S. food supply and plant and animal stocks weren't harmed and remain safe to eat, according to officials of the seed company and the government.

But the government's secrecy about the mistake raises serious concerns, according to independent experts.

[trudyco]

12. wonder if this will effect Monarch butterflies...or maybe BT10

is already killing them off. So this seed was only given to regular farmers, right, not organic?

[Eloriel]

13. Hah! This isn't even about the OTHER problem they had

a few years ago -- with Starlink which had never been approved for human use.

Of course, that bothers me from the get go, because if it's not approved for human use, that means it's fed to animals, and most of the animals that are fed corn become food for humans, which means that the non-approved-for-human-consumption corn gets to us anyway, just via a more circuitous route.