The agreement, which stated that the producer understood how StarLink was to be sold and marketed, was to be signed and returned directly to Aventis. Aventis has not said how many grower agreements they received prior to the announcement of StarLink in foods. Minnesota's Bruce Hamm is a Garst dealer who grew 1,400 acres of the corn himself. He's mad at grain companies for refusing to take the grain. Des Keller Aventis was sending out agreements to buyers of StarLink as late as the end of September, after the StarLink controversy erupted.
Some growers say it was the first one they saw.
Garst officials have said it was their policy, as part of their license agreement with Aventis, to have multiple contacts with growers so producers would have numerous chances to become informed about StarLink's restrictions. Garst spokesman Jeff Lacina says the company can't guarantee that all its salesmen gave StarLink information to all their growers. There was no way to track it. Hamm is caught in the middle as well-as a farmer he planted every one of his 1,400 corn acres to StarLink hybrids. Trouble Coming Overall, somewhere between 2,600 and 3,000 farmers grew StarLink on 350,000 acres this past season.