When Science Gets in the Way of Pet Agendas

On June 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued a report about StarLink corn.1 Remember StarLink? Marketed by Aventis Seeds, it contained a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. The Cry9C protein encoded by the gene rendered the plants resistant to chewing insects. But unlike other varieties of Bt corn, StarLink was not approved for human consumption because of questions about potential allergenicity. Data provided to the Environmental Protectio

Barry Palevitz

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EPA erred badly--in hindsight, it's not surprising that StarLink made its way into the human food stream. Last September, a genetic testing lab hired by environmental activists detected StarLink's DNA fingerprint in tacos distributed by Kraft Foods. A subsequent search led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recall hundreds of corn products, and Aventis cringed at a clean up bill of $1 billion. The media went into a feeding frenzy and environmental groups like Greenpeace and Environmental Defense (ED) that are opposed to genetically modified crops had a field day. About 50 people claimed they were sickened after eating the corn.

But did those people really react to Cry9C protein? Scientists agreed the possibility of an allergic response was slim. The levels of food borne Cry9C protein if any were low, and besides, it hadn't been around that long. You have to have been exposed to an antigen beforehand ...

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