Text.doc
1.30
October 12, 2000
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by John Guthrie
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*Articles by individuals other than John Guthrie do not neccesarily reflect the views or opinions of myself or of this newsgroup*
Is Genetically Engineered Corn Dangerous?
by Philip Brasher
A type of genetically engineered
corn that is
not approved for food use was withdrawn
from the market at
the government's urging
Thursday after the crop showed up in
additional brands of taco shells.
The Environmental
Protection Agency said
Aventis CropScience agreed to cancel its
license to sell the corn, known
as StarLink. It
is only allowed for use in animal
feed because
of unresolved questions
about whether it can
cause allergies in humans.
The health risks
from the corn, "if any, are
extremely low," the EPA
said in a statement.
But because "Aventis was responsible for
ensuring that StarLink
corn only be used in
animal feed,
and that responsibility clearly
was not met, today's
action was necessary,"
the agency said.
Safeway
Inc. removed taco shells from its
stores Wednesday night after
learning of test
results that showed they may contain the
biotech corn. Kraft Foods issued a nationwide
recall Sept. 22 of taco
shells it sells under the
Taco Bell brand name after similar tests
confirmed the presence of the corn.
Aventis
already had suspended sales of the
seed for next year's crop and agreed to
reimburse the government for purchasing
all
of this year's harvest.
The corn contains a bacterium gene that
makes it toxic to some insects. All such
pest-resistant crops must
be licensed by EPA
before farmers are allowed to grow them.
StarLink is one of
the least used varieties of
biotech corn and the only
one not allowed in
food.
The corn flour used in the Kraft
and Safeway
taco shells came from the same company,
Azteca Milling of Irving, Texas, a joint
partnership of Archer Daniels Midland
Co. of
Decatur, Ill., and Gruma
S.A. of Monterrey,
Mexico.
Azteca is investigating
the incidents and has
implemented
testing procedures to prevent
the biotech corn from reaching
its mills, said
company spokeswoman Sarah Wright.
Safeway's action applied
to shells sold under
both its private label
and under the name of
Mission Foods, a Gruma subsidiary.
Customers who purchased the shells are
being
offered refunds. Safeway said it had been
assured by Mission
Foods that the corn was
not in its products.
Safeway, based in Pleasanton, Calif.,
has 1,400
stores in the
United States, primarily in the
West.
The Food and Drug Administration
has been
testing a variety of corn products for
StarLink, but agency spokeswoman Ruth
Welch declined to say whether the agency
had
found
the corn in any foods other than the
Kraft taco shells.
"We're
doing a full investigation working
with all
parties involved in this issue," she
said.
The StarLink corn was grown on about
300,000 acres this year
nationwide, or about
0.4 percent of the total U.S. corn acreage.
The
Agriculture
Department is buying up all of
this year's crop and then selling it for feed
and
other non-food uses. USDA estimates the
action will cost Aventis as much as $100
million.
The StarLink corn has become an
embarrassment to the
biotech industry, and
food manufacturers have been meeting
almost
daily with government
officials to deal with
the issue. "We want to make sure that
everything is done on the part of the
government to
reassure consumers that the
food supply is safe," said
Gene Grabowski, a
spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers
of
America.
The Safeway taco shells were
purchased at a
Washington-area
store Sept. 28 and tested
Wednesday by a firm in Iowa at the request
of
the coalition known as the Genetically
Engineered Food Alert.
"This is the second contamination
incident in
the past couple of weeks," said
Mark Helm, a
spokesman for the environmental group
Friends of the Earth.
"It seems pretty clear
that the FDA is doing a miserable job
ensuring the safety of the American food
supply."
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*Articles by individuals other than John Guthrie do not neccesarily reflect the views or opinions of myself or of this newsgroup*
Anyone For Politics?
by William Lester
Al Gore has many advantages
over George W.
Bush in the presidential race these days, but
voter enthusiasm isn't one of them.
Three national polls released
Tuesday agree the
race is close, and all found that Republican
Bush's supporters are more enthusiastic
about his
candidacy than
Democrat Gore's are for him.
"The enthusiasm advantage
has resurfaced for
Bush," said Andrew Kohut,
director of the Pew
Research Center. "This probably reflects
Democrats not liking Gore's
performance in the
debate."
Bush held
a big advantage on the enthusiasm
factor for months leading up to the political
conventions, but Gore had a successful
convention and increased
excitement about his
effort.
Then came the first presidential debate last
week, when Gore won on points but clearly
irritated
some voters with his style, including
sighing loudly as Bush talked
and interrupting to
make a rhetorical
point. Their second debate is
scheduled for Wednesday night.
Fewer than half
of Democrats in the Pew poll
said they strongly support Gore
while more than
six in 10 Republicans said they
strongly support
Bush. Polls by ABC
News and CBS News also
suggested that Bush's backers
are more fired up.
All three polls suggested the head-to-head
race is
close - within their margins of error.
Just under half of voters think
Gore will win the
election while about a third think
Bush will win.
But Bush's more enthusiastic
backing from his
own party could be significant
on Election Day.
"Enthusiasm could affect
turnout," Kohut said.
"It could affect the extent to which voters
encourage others to
vote for their candidate."
Enthusiasm could
be crucial in a race so close
that swing voters were just as likely
to tilt toward
Gore as they were toward Bush,
as the Pew poll
suggested.
The enthusiasm shortage for
Gore comes at the
same time that polls suggest he has many
advantages in the issues and in some key
personal traits.
Bush
and Gore were close on education and
taxes in the
polls, but Gore had a comfortable
lead on issues ranging from health
care to Social
Security to the economy. Gore
had a big lead on
being personally qualified
to be president in the
Pew poll.
Bush was
seen as more of a leader and more
willing to take a stand. But there were some
troubling signs for the governor of Texas.
The CBS News poll said 47 percent of
voters are
uneasy with Bush on the question of foreign
policy, while 40 percent are comfortable.
Gore's
split on that question was 50 percent
comfortable, 40 percent uneasy.
And the ABC News poll
said four in 10 voters
see Bush
as caring more about serving upper
income people and almost as many said
all of the
people. About a fifth said Gore cares
more about
serving the poor, and another fifth said the
middle class, while four in 10 said all of the
people. Only one in 10 said he
cared more about
serving upper income people.
The ABC News poll of
826 likely voters taken
Oct. 6-9 and has an error margin of
3 percentage
points. The CBS News
poll of 1,178 registered
voters was taken Oct. 6-9 and has an error
margin of 3 percentage points.
The Pew poll of
1,009 registered voters
was taken Oct. 4-8 and
has an error
margin of 3.5 percentage points.
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