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Kraft Exec Wants Tougher Rules On Planting Crops For Drugs (Posted:
04-Apr-03)

Chicago Sun-Times | BY SANDRA GUY | April 4, 2003

Kraft Co-CEO Betsy Holden is calling for stricter rules for planting
crops that are bio-engineered to produce pharmaceuticals.

The usually tight-lipped and regulation-averse Holden told an
agricultural forum that such crops, as well as genetically modified
animals, pose a threat to the food supply.

"Both share the same issue--the risk of commingling with the food
supply, the same problem that led to the recall a couple of years
ago of our Taco Bell products that were adulterated with StarLink
corn," Holden said in a speech to the Outlook Forum in Arlington,
Va., sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Kraft Foods voluntarily recalled its Taco Bell Home Originals taco
shells from grocery stores nationwide in September 2000 after its
tests confirmed the presence of StarLink corn, which is genetically
engineered. The corn had been approved by the Environmental
Protection Agency for use in animal feed, but not for human
consumption because it can trigger allergic reactions.

Asked to expand on Holden's comments, Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd
said if the federal government refuses to outlaw pharmaceutical
crops or to ban their planting in farm states, Northfield-based
Kraft "wants there to be every regulation possible so commingling
will not happen."

A reporter for Congress Daily, a Capitol Hill news service, asked
Holden after her speech whether a tolerance level should be allowed
for pharmaceuticals in crops. Holden declined to answer, but she
said a trace amount of an allergen "could be extremely deadly,"
according to the Congress Daily report.

Holden also pointed to "close calls" in which the Agriculture
Department found traces of biopharmaceutical corn in a crop of
Nebraska soybeans and in a new corn crop in Iowa. Farmers had
planted the soybeans on top of the plowed-under corn.
ProdiGene Inc., a privately held biotech company based in College
Station, Texas, agreed to pay about $3 million in fines and costs
after the Nebraska mixup.

"Right now, public acceptance of biotechnology in America is
relatively high," Holden said. "But how many more times can we test
the public's trust before we begin to lose it?" she asked.
The issue is gaining urgency because about 20 companies are splicing
corn, rice, soybeans, tobacco and other crops to try to mass-produce
medicines. Nationwide, 38 percent of the 79 million acres of corn
planted this year will be biotech, including corn genetically
engineered to resist insects and weedkiller, according to the
Associated Press.

Regulators have yet to approve products made from pharmaceutical
crops for commercial use, but the companies developing them want to
go to market in a few years.

Holden isn't alone in her complaints. Groups as varied as the
Grocery Manufacturers of America and environmental groups opposed to
genetically modified organisms in food have called for federal
regulators to crack down on biopharmaceutical farming.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization last fall endorsed a ban on
pharmaceutical crops in the Midwest and Plains states, but reversed
itself after farm-state lawmakers protested. Farmers see the new
technology as a potentially lucrative business because the crops
would sell for premium prices.

The Agriculture Department in March proposed new, stricter rules
governing pharmaceutical plants.

Pharmaceutical corn crops would have to be planted at least one mile
away from plants grown for human and livestock food, for example.
Current regulations call for a half-mile separation.

The proposed rules also call for land used to grow biopharm corn
crops to lie fallow for a year and for separate equipment to be used
in planting genetically engineered and conventional crops.
Mudd, the Kraft spokesman, said the company endorses the proposed
rules and wants farmers to guard their fields to ensure no one
steals the bio-engineered crops.

Opponents say such rules are unworkable and fail to take into
account today's sophisticated farming methods.
Henry I. Miller, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and former
director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of
Biotechnology, said Thursday that the proposed "one size fits all"
rules are unnecessary.

The likelihood that people would be injured by biopharm and
conventional crop mixups is highly unlikely, Miller said.
The regulations would stigmatize bio-engineered crops, inflate the
costs of developing them and result in far fewer new drugs for
consumers, he said.

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