THE discovery in the US of food contaminated by a genetically modified crop
approved only for animal feed could have serious repercussions. Activists are
demanding that GM crops shouldn’t be approved if they can’t safely be eaten by
people—a move that could stall efforts to use GM plants for industrial
uses such as making drugs, plastics and biofuels.
Aventis CropScience of North Carolina last week voluntarily withdrew its
StarLink maize after traces were found in taco shells and also agreed to buy
back all of this year’s crop. Because StarLink is engineered to produce an
insecticidal protein called Cry9C…
