Moreover, not all producers had signed contracts that prohibited them from using the corn for human food products. As a result, the company that licenses the StarLink technology, Aventis CropScience, is paying farmers an extra 25 cents a bushel to get back this year's crop. Since the US problem is limited to StarLink, which represents only 0.5 percent of the nation's corn crop, some grain-industry officials claim the flap represents an anomaly. Others, however, counter that it is concrete evidence of what can go wrong. What we need in fact is a far more comprehensive strengthening of the system.
Some rules are already in place.
According to Aventis's rules, StarLink corn isn't supposed to be grown within 660 feet of other crops destined to be human food. But if farmers ignored that rule, their StarLink corn may have pollinated the nearby crop of a neighbor, who unwittingly could have sold it anywhere. One major reason is that the grain-handling industry can't handle it currently. Set up to process huge amounts of commodities, the system only genetically tests niche products, such as popcorn and soybeans destined for tofu, whose high value covers the expense of testing. The Monitor does not endorse the sites behind these links.