October 19, 2000
		FarmersUnaware of Biotech Restrictions According to a New York Times report of October 17, farmers in several Midwestern states have said that they were not adequately warned about restrictions on how a variety of biotech corn was to be planted, stored and sold, running contrary to suppliers’ claims. The farmers have said that they were not told that StarLink corn, developed by Aventis Crop-Science, needed to be kept apart from other crops until reports emerged last month that StarLink had been detected in Taco Bell brand taco shells. Last week, it was also discovered in the Safeway store brand. Farmers also claimed that while they'd been told last spring that the corn had not been approved by regulatory agencies for human consumption, they need not be alarmed because approval was expected shortly. StarLink has been limited to use in animal feed and industrial products because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not be certain that it wouldn't cause an allergic response. Aventis claims that farmers were informed that the corn hadn't been approved for human consumption and that they should keep a 660-foot barrier to prevent the corn from spreading its genetic material to other crops during pollination. Exactly what farmers knew could end up playing a role in lawsuits growing out of the scandal. Lawyers for Aventis will try to fend off liability for the expenses incurred by farmers, grain elevators, millers and food companies. Last week, officials working to locate StarLink corn said that millions of bushels might have found their way into food production channels. Though Aventis has said it will buy segregated StarLink crops from farmers and elevators, farmers say the company has refused to buy the far larger quantities of corn that may have been mixed with StarLink strains. "You have to wonder what people assumed would happen," said Neil D. Hamilton, an agricultural law expert at Drake University in Des Moines. It's still uncertain whether a small number or many hundreds of farmers have mixed harvested StarLink corn with the rest of their crop in storage bins or have shipped it to grain elevators, which could vastly complicate the effort to isolate the crop. But a number of farmers have begun to complain publicly. "We never found out until two weeks ago," said Fred Rosenberger, who grew 40 acres of StarLink corn on his Kentucky farm this year. Mr. Rosenberger said that because he stored the corn before realizing that it should be segregated, some 8,000 bushels of StarLink corn were mixed in with about 42,000 bushels of other varieties. Duane Adams, a farmer from Cosmos, Minnesota, and vice president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, said that none of the papers that came with StarLink seed he purchased last spring carried a warning about the crop's restricted use or an indication that it should be planted at least 660 feet from any other corn. In addition to these anxieties, many farmers with affected corn can no longer fulfill contracts to deliver it to elevators or processors. With corn prices rising, the uncertainty about how these obligations will be taken care of or whether they will be fairly reimbursed by Aventis is quite distressing to many already nervous small farmers.