Corn Grower President Applauds EPA Decision to Make Seed Corporations
Responsible for Economic Losses
Tuesday October 17 4:03pm
Source: PR Newswire
Farmers Concerned About Being Kept in the Dark on GMO Corn Recall
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- American Corn Growers Association
(ACGA) President Keith Dittrich, from his grain farm in Tilden,
Nebraska, says farmers that he talks with are concerned that they are
not being told the whole story abut the legal and financial risks
associated with growing Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) corn and
other commodities.
The growing concern comes amid evidence that the GMO corn variety,
StarLink, unapproved for human consumption, has entered the U.S.
human food chain. It is now under recall. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has called upon Aventis CropScience, which
sold the rogue seed variety StarLink to farmers, to pay for the
economic mess it has created.
"The recall of StarLink corn is causing farmers to ask hard questions
about who is responsible for the consumer concerns and economic costs
related to farmers unknowingly growing unapproved GMO varieties. I
applaud the EPA for agreeing with farmers that the companies who
pushed this technology onto farmers must take responsibility. It sets
a necessary precedent and sends a strong signal to biotech companies
that they must be totally above board with farmers and own up to any
and all economic costs that face farmers as a result of growing and
marketing GMO crops," said Dittrich.
In a statement released last week, the EPA stated that Aventis was
responsible for ensuring that StarLink corn only is used in animal
feed, and that responsibility clearly was not met. Farmers, grain
elevators and milling companies face mounting costs from the fiasco.
"Farmers are getting a wake-up call from this issue. They're finding
it harder and harder to know how many economic risks they're actually
taking by making a decision to buy GMO seed," said Dan McGuire, a
Nebraska grain producer and Program Director of the Farmer Choice -
Customer First Program, an education project of the American Corn
Growers Association. "Even farmers who raise traditional, Non-GMO
corn are faced with economic risk and marketing uncertainty. Corn
pollen can drift long distances, meaning a farmer can't be sure of
keeping their Non-GMO cornfields pure. Even if farmers who raised
StarLink are paid a premium to get it off the market, they and their
neighbors are put in a difficult situation by the biotech companies
pushing GMO corn into the marketing system without serious regard for
the potential loss of foreign and domestic markets and various
consumer-related concerns."
The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) is a leading voice on
GMO corn issues. ACGA, through a series of educational seminars, has
informed farmers on the marketing risks they may face when choosing
to produce GMO corn. In a recent workshop at Iowa State University,
ACGA Board Member Chuck Pyatt, Greene, Iowa, told educators: "In
deciding whether or not to use GMO seeds farmers are caught in a
giant vice. We're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't.
Farmers are eager to adopt new technologies, but they cannot afford
the loss of markets. Nor can they absorb the cost of segregating
production at current low corn price levels," said Pyatt.
"The ACGA and its member producers stand ready to help solve problems
created by new technology, but we need cooperation from the biotech
industry," Pyatt added.
The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) represents corn
producers in 28 states. ACGA's Board of Directors consists
exclusively of corn producers representing farmer interests.
Source: American Corn Growers Association Contact: Lynden Peter of
American Corn Growers Association, 202-835-0330, or acga@acga.org