Some farmers are profiting from StarLink corn recall

WASHINGTON (AP)--The discovery of unapproved biotech corn in the food supply has shut down processors, snarled the nation's grain traffic and put hundreds of farmers on edge. But for growers like Warren Formo, it's money in the pocket.

Formo stands to make an extra $4,200 on the gene-altered corn because of a crash program by the government and the seed's developer, Aventis CropScience, to buy up the grain and keep any more of it from getting into food. The corn, known as StarLink, isn't approved for human consumption because of unresolved questions about its potential to cause allergic reactions.

The 2,600 farmers who grew it are being offered an extra 25 cents per bushel over the local price of corn.

Formo, who farms near Granite Falls, MN, says he followed all the rules for growing and handling StarLink. He kept it separate from other crops to avoid contaminating them and delivered his 17,000 bushels of StarLink last week to an approved mill for grinding into animal feed.

"We knew right from the beginning that we were going to have to segregate it. We were prepared," said Formo.

Some farmers weren't so careful, however, and didn't even keep track of where they planted the corn. Others apparently were not told of restrictions on how the crop was to be grown and used, Aventis says. Agriculture experts and food industry officials say the StarLink problem has exposed flaws in farm practices and the nation's grain-handling system that need to be dealt with.

"We need to make sure that all the links in the food supply system are educated, from the seed sales force, to the farmers, to the elevator managers. Everyone needs to be educated for the system to work properly," Formo said.

Aventis has withdrawn StarLink from the market, and federal officials say it is improbable that farmers ever again will be allowed to grow a crop like corn that isn't first approved for food use.

The challenge of maintaining separate crops, which shouldn't be mixed, isn't going to go away. The advent of genetically engineered plants, the rise of organic farming and development of crops with special nutritional properties that command premium prices all present difficulties.

"The real challenge for the industry is to draw our hands together and to create an identity-preservation system that informs everybody in the chain what they need to do and when they need to do it," said Ed Beaman, of the Agribusiness Association of Iowa, which represents grain-handling facilities, seed suppliers and other companies.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture began a loan program this year to help farmers build new storage bins and is working on proposals for standardizing identification and detection of genetically engineered crops. The proposals are expected to be issued next month.

Farmers who grew StarLink were supposed to sign agreements with Aventis that explained the restrictions on the crop. Seed bags were labeled with warnings that the corn was not for human consumption. Because corn pollen can drift, growing restrictions barred the food use of corn planted within 660 feet of a StarLink field.

Now, because the rules weren't followed, grain elevators are discovering that StarLink was mixed with other corn that growers delivered to them, and farmers are worried about their legal liability. Some growers who didn't plant the corn are finding that their crops were cross-pollinated with StarLink grown improperly by their neighbors.

The program by Aventis and USDA to buy up StarLink is a boon "for farmers who are good managers, who know exactly where their crops are planted," because it means an extra 25 cents a bushel with no extra work, said Lynn Jensen, president of the National Corn Growers Association.

"For those who don't have a good idea of what parts of their farm they planted, or have commingled their grain in their bins or elevators, it's quite a headache."

Two food manufacturers, Kraft Foods and Mission Foods, recalled taco shells after the discovery of StarLink from last year's crop in the products, and industry officials say several corn millers have had to suspend operations to clean their facilities.

Entire sections of corn-hauling trains have been turned away from storage facilities when tests have found traces of StarLink.

USDA still is trying to trace about 1.2 million bushels, or 1.5%, of the StarLink corn grown this year. The rest is in storage or has been put to approved uses.