Unapproved, untested variety
released by mistake
GM maize: a dangerous experiment
24/03/2005 — In an article published today
in Nature magazine, Syngenta has admitted
that they sold hundreds of tonnes of the wrong
GE maize in the US over the past four years.
Syngenta distributed an unauthorised insect
resistant maize Bt10, instead of the GE maize
Bt11, which is approved in a number of countries
around the world. The discovery happened late
in 2004, but instead of informing farmers
and consumers straight away, Syngenta entered
into secret talks with the US government over
how they should tell the public.
According to article in Nature, US regulators
only considered whether the Bt10 maize was
safe for human consumption in late 2004, after
the contamination was reported to the US government.
This means that for four years, consumers
eating products containing GE corn may well
have eaten some Bt10 - completely untested
for environmental or food 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 and demonstrates once
again that GE crops can't be controlled, even
by the companies that develop them" said
Doreen Stabinsky, GE campaigner. "The
long time that this contamination took to
be discovered shows the lack of adequate checks
made by the industry and the complete absence
of adequate controls by the US government.
Even more worrying is the secrecy and delay
in making this known to the public, who are
the unwitting consumers of GE products with
no safety testing."
This unauthorized strain of GE maize could
have been grown in several other countries,
such as Argentina, South Africa and Uruguay,
where Bt11 is approved for cultivation. Syngenta
has until now refused to reveal what other
countries may have received contaminated seed.
Equally unknown are the countries that unwittingly
received exports of the unapproved maize from
the United States, the volume of contaminated
maize that might have been exported, and the
extent of contamination in manufactured food
products.
The illegal GE corn could be in many products
worldwide, and hence all products that may
contain Bt10 maize should be taken from shop
shelves and all fields growing GE maize that
may be contaminated with Bt10 should be destroyed,
with compensation provided to farmers.
Stabinsky stated "The US government's
role in this GE contamination cannot be overlooked.
Whilst trying to force countries worldwide
to accept GMOs they continue to preside over
case after case of illegal and dangerous GE
contamination. When this is the model of GMO
regulation that the US is trying to force
upon other countries - by its WTO case against
the EU and by its constant interference in
the Biosafety Protocol negotiations - then
the US Government should not be surprised
when the reaction of the rest of the world
is to tell them to get their own house in
order, and to stop spreading genetic contamination
all over the planet."
