December 14, 2000
		Grain Industry Reels in the Wake of StarLink A recent New York Times article by David Barboza detailed the changes that have come into place after the discovery by Friends of the Earth of the presence of StarLink corn in Taco Bell brand taco shells. StarLink, developed by biotech giant Aventis CropScience, was prohibited from entering the human food chain because of concerns that it could cause an allergic response. Nonetheless, after its initial discovery, it's turned up in many different products, prompting citizen and environmental groups to call attention to the obvious lack of consumer protection. Millions of corn products have been recalled in the wake of the discovery of StarLink, and it has changed the way farmers, grain elevator operators, seed companies, and the processed food industry works. Barboza described the process for determining the presence of StarLink, which would force trucks containing it to return it to the grain elevators from which it'd originated. The crew at a processing plant divides, sifts, weighs and grinds the corn, then tests a sample. If a red dye splotch turns up, the corn is rejected. The elevators that shipped the corn are then burdened with it until they can find a buyer for another use. "It's a logistical nightmare," said Steven Phillips, grain merchandiser and supplier to Archer Daniels Midland. "We had 15 truckloads of corn rejected last week." Aventis has promised to find markets for this year's StarLink crop, and compensate farmers and elevator operators for their expenses. Though Aventis received less than a million dollars in licensing fees for StarLink, this could cost the company millions of dollars to resolve. Aventis has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve StarLink for Human consumption for four years, to allow the StarLink that already exists to work through the food chain. Also, several processors have asked the EPA to allow a small percentage of StarLink in food, as they do with other impurities. This mess have brought into focus the difficulties of keeping a handle on biotechnology. "We're not cut out to segregate," said Gary Alberts, a spokesman for the Iowa Institute of Cooperatives, an elevator trade association. "We handle a lot of grain in a hurry. We're built to load a rail car in a day." Corn prices, which were already in a slump, are likely to decline further as our imports to Japan, the largest purchaser of U.S. corn, are down because of concerns about StarLink. StarLink has also been found in food there. "StarLink has definitely set back the biotech industry, maybe five years, said Lewis Batchwelder, a senior vice president at the Decatur, Illinois, based Archer Daniels Midland.