Illegal Variety of Monsanto's
Canola in US Food Supply

From Agribusiness Examiner #155 4/15/02
By Al Krebs <avkrebs@earthlink.net>

SELLING ILLEGAL GE CANOLA SEED:
CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY
SEEKS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
OF MONSANTO AND AVENTIS

JOE MENDELSON, CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY:

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a legal petition [yesterday] with
the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeking a criminal
investigation of two biotechnology companies, Monsanto and Aventis.
The petition is filed on behalf of CFS and the Genetically Engineered Food
Alert (GEFA) coalition. It describes newly discovered evidence that genetically
engineered canola seed not approved in the United States may have illegally
entered into the commercial U.S. seed supply, potentially contaminating
canola seed already sold to farmers.

In the past months, two of the country's largest agribusiness corporations,
Monsanto and Aventis, have applied for commercial approval of three
varieties of canola, GT200 (Monsanto), Topas 19/2 (Aventis) and RF1
(Aventis). None of these three canola varieties is currently approved for
commercial sale in the United States. The USDA, the federal agency with
control over planting and seed sale permission, has not yet approved these
canola varieties over concerns that crops can be plant pests. Yet the
companies admit that the new varieties may have contaminated U.S. seed
supplies, and are now applying for approval in an attempt to avoid a massive
food and seed recall.

The Center for Food Safety discovered this new evidence of GE seed
contamination through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FOIA
documents and USDA environmental assessments clearly show that both
companies were aware of the contamination with the illegal seeds and sought
USDA approval in an attempt to avoid liability. Included in the materials
that the Center for Food Safety requested was a letter from Monsanto from
last November to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in which the
company admits to potential contamination. "Although glyphosate-tolerant
canola event GT200 is not intended to be commercialized . . .[it] has the
potential to be present in low, adventitious levels in commercial canola
varieties." (Letter to USDA from Monsanto, November 9, 2001)

"This is genetic pollution of our food supply," explained Joseph Mendelson,
Legal Director for the Center for Food Safety. "And now Monsanto and Aventis
are asking the USDA for a cover-up. We are demanding a full criminal
investigation of two the companies, and an inquiry into USDA's actions in
not making this matter public."

Monsanto was faced with a similar seed contamination situation in 1997. At
that time, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ("CFIA") suspended the sale
of a Monsanto genetically engineered Roundup Ready canola due to the fact
that it was contaminated with an unapproved variety event GT200. The
suspension led to a subsequent recall of 60,000 bags of contaminated canola
seed (enough to plant 600,000 acres) and forced the Canadian government to
broker deals with farmers to plow under fields already planted with the
contaminated seed. According to Monsanto, the problem may have occurred
because the company allowed the seeds to get mixed up and bred together.
"Once again we are faced with a regulatory breakdown with regards to
genetically engineered foods; a case in which government oversight has been
lax and laws has been broken," said Matt Rand, Biotechnology Campaign
Manager for the National Environmental Trust.

A full copy of the petition or further information, can be seen at:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
and
http://www.gefa.org

MONSANTO SEEKS TO AVOID MASSIVE FOOD RECALL
ASKING USDA TO "FORGIVE" PRESENCE
OF GE MATERIAL IN CANOLA SEED

SCOTT KILMAN & JILL CARROLL, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Monsanto Co. believes that some of its canola seed might contain genetically
modified material that isn't federally approved. Angling to avoid a massive
recall of food products, the company is asking regulators to forgive any presence of it.

The St. Louis-based biotechnology company has yet to detect it in the seeds
it has tested, but says trace amounts of the material were found last year
in Canadian seed, leading it to believe the same is possible in the U.S. In
conceding that for three years U.S. farmers have been planting canola seed
that may contain certain genetic material that was never meant to leave the
laboratory, Monsanto has become the latest example of the biotechnology
industry failing to control plants whose genes it has altered.

Monsanto, which is 85% owned by drug maker Pharmacia Corp., Peapack, New
Jersey, insists that the canola seed in question is safe to consume. But
genetically modified food is an emotional issue for many consumers. And
Monsanto's admission is sure to fuel consumer skepticism and inflame
opponents of gene-altered crops, who object to the idea of tinkering with
nature and who worry about cross-pollination with other crops.

Clearly, Monsanto is hoping to avoid a repeat of the biotechnology
industry's most embarrassing and costly episode, in which a variety of
genetically modified corn approved only for livestock consumption and
industrial use found its way into the human food supply. Called StarLink,
the corn was detected in more than 300 products with brand names such as
Kraft and Taco Bell, resulting in enormous recalls in 2000. . . . .

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is leaning toward granting Monsanto's
unusual request, which the company made in a November letter, but hasn't
done so formally. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing safety data
from Monsanto.

If Monsanto fails to receive federal approval for the altered organism,
known as GT200, the discovery of its presence in U.S. canola wouldn't
necessarily mandate a food recall, as the laws don't spell it out. But
antibiotechnology groups would likely clamor for a recall. The situation is
potentially a big headache for the U.S. food industry, because canola oil is
a basic ingredient in hundreds of products. Canola's popularity has
increased because it is lower in saturated fats than other edible oils.
About two-thirds of the canola crops in the U.S. are already genetically
modified.

A spokesman for ConAgra Foods Inc., maker of Wesson oil, says the company
doesn't screen its canola oil for genetically modified ingredients. He
wouldn't comment on what the company would do if GT200 is detected in its
supplies.

Monsanto created GT200 in the 1990s while trying to produce a seed capable
of growing into a canola plant invulnerable to Roundup, a Monsanto
weedkiller. Such a plant would enable farmers to liberally apply the
herbicide without damaging their crop. Ultimately, Monsanto chose to develop
and market canola seed that had been modified differently. Called RT73, it
is also invulnerable to Roundup.

Deciding that the second version performed better, Monsanto sought and
received federal approval to market RT73 canola seed. Federal scrutiny is
required of any plant containing a foreign gene. Monsanto inserted genes
from microorganisms into both versions of its canola seed. But in the
November letter to the USDA, Monsanto said that GT200 "has the potential to
be present in low, adventitious levels in commercial canola varieties." A
majority of the 1.5 million acres of canola fields in the U.S. are believed
to be planted with seed containing Monsanto's federally cleared
Roundup-tolerant gene.

Last year, the GT200 version showed up in Canadian canola seed, forcing
Monsanto to recall hundreds of tons of it. Although Monsanto had sought and
received Canadian approval for GT200, the recall was necessary because
Canada exports huge amounts of canola to Japan, which hadn't approved GT200.
Monsanto says it never sold the GT200 version commercially in Canada and
isn't sure why it wound up in canola seed there.

In the corn-contamination case of two years ago, StarLink's inventor, the
cropscience division of French pharmaceutical giant Aventis SA, had to stop
selling the seed and set aside Û100 million ($88 million) to compensate food
companies and growers for their costs.

The fallout was widespread. A market exploded for food products free of
genetically modified ingredients. Some farmers got cold feet about jumping
into the biotech era. Wheat growers, for example, are telling Monsanto to
proceed slowly with plans to supply them with genetically modified seeds.
The Aventis cropscience division is being sold to German pharmaceutical
giant Bayer AG.

The biotechnology industry concedes the primary point of its opponents ---
that crops mate too freely to keep genetically modified versions entirely
separate. The wind and insects can carry the pollen of a genetically
modified plant great distances to where it isn't wanted: an organic farm,
for instance. The pollen from a genetically modified corn plant can
fertilize corn that wasn't intended to be bioengineered.

The problem extends to genetically modified crops that are legal but
unwanted by a certain segment of consumers. A Wall Street Journal laboratory
investigation last year of 20 products labeled as containing no genetically
modified ingredients found evidence of the material in 16 of them.

"As we see more and more varieties come out . . . you might find trace
amounts [of bioengineered ingredients] in food that didn't go through the
full regulatory measure," says Michael P. Phillips of the Biotechnology
Industry Organization, an industry trade group. But rather than hysterical
reactions, the industry argues that government and society should accept
trace-level contaminations. Officials of Monsanto, Aventis and other crop
biotech companies want a new policy from the White House that would allow
for the accidental presence of trace amounts of some genetically modified
materials in seed and food . . . .