- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
exporters said Friday Japan has found trace amounts of unapproved StarLink
corn in an American shipment bound for Tokyo's food supply, renewing fears
that major trading partners may once again turn their backs on U.S. crops.
-
- The return of StarLink corn comes as the United States
tries to convince reluctant trading partners like the European Union and
southern Africa that genetically modified crops are safe for consumers.
-
- Three U.S. exporters told Reuters that Japan's Ministry
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries late Thursday detected StarLink
corn in a U.S. corn shipment in a vessel, The North King, docked at Nagoya
harbor, with one quoted as saying, "We can confirm that in fact some
food corn was detected as StarLink. They randomly test inbound corn for
StarLink both food and feed corn."
-
- Another U.S. exporter said the discovery would "create
a problem for everyone. Everyone's gotten a little lazy. The Japanese government
hasn't been testing that often. Now they'll be testing every boat again
for the next month."
-
- A Japanese embassy official in Washington said he could
not yet confirm that StarLink corn was found, but was checking with Tokyo.
-
- A U.S. Agriculture Department official said the agency
was unaware of Japan's findings on StarLink corn, but was looking into
the matter.
-
- "There hasn't been any communication with USDA from
the Japanese government," said a USDA spokesman, who wished not to
be identified. "All of our vessels are tested for StarLink."
-
- USDA officials said they were surprised by the news since
they believed all remaining StarLink corn was destroyed last year.
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- http://www.connectotel.com/gmfood/re271202.txt
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