Aventis, which has been denied entry of its products into Europe by the EU, has applied to grow its genetically modified crop in South Africa
Fiona Macleod
A company that has had to remove about 300 food products from United States supermarket shelves because they contain a genetically engineered maize that may cause human allergies now wants to grow the crop in South Africa. The French-based pharmaceuticals giant Aventis has applied to the Department of Agriculture for a permit to introduce the crop to South Africa. The maize is known as StarLink and it has been engineered to contain a gene that is suspected to cause allergies.
Aventis had permission to grow the crop in the US only for animal foods and industrial use. But the discovery of StarLink in the human food chain in the past weeks has caused mass hysteria among consumers. Snacks, cereals and restaurant foods produced by major brand names like Kraft Foods, Safeway and Western Family Foods have been recalled and two large food companies shut down their production lines.
Many of the contaminated products are sold under different brand names, so it is difficult for consumers to know whether the food in their pantry is suspect. At least one lawsuit has been filed against Kraft by a Chicago man who claims he suffered severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea, a headache and hives after eating tacos made with contaminated maize.
StarLink contains a pesticide gene, Cry9C, that is resistant to heat and difficult to digest. It is this gene that is suspected to cause allergies. In its application to the Department of Agriculture in September, Aventis said it wants to grow maize with the Cry9C gene in South African “research trials”. This involves testing the crop in local conditions before it can be grown commercially.
“Even if StarLink maize is grown commercially for animal consumption or industrial purposes only, can we stop the contamination of other foodstuffs?” asks Mariam Mayet, a Johannesburg lawyer who specialises in legislation on genetic engineering.
“South Africa does not require genetically modified food to be segregated from that which has not been genetically modified. Labelling is also not required, which means the consumer will be unaware that he is consuming contaminated foods that have specifically not been approved for human consumption.”
The StarLink scare in the US has raised questions about whether it is practically possible to segregate maize approved for human consumption from unapproved crops. It has not been established how the mix-up happened, but the problem starts with the crop’s tendency to cross-pollinate while it is growing. Aventis created buffer zones of 22m around the StarLink maize fields, but now acknowledges the distance may not be enough.
“This case clearly calls for South Africa to use the precautionary principle and ban the import of any genetically modified crop that may cause harm to human health or may enter the human food supply,” says Mayet. The European Commission, which is investigating the possibility that StarLink products may have been exported to Europe, last week said it had invoked the precautionary principle in dealing with StarLink.
“Until we have a risk assessment, it’s better to keep it out,” said Wilfried Schneider, a representative of the European Union (EU) delegation to the US. The EU has enforced mandatory labelling of genetically engineered products for the past two years. In Japan, where StarLink is not approved even for animal feed, the consumers’ union has reported detecting it in snack foods and animal feed sold locally. The country is now trying to source its maize supply elsewhere.
Department of Agriculture representative Magriet Engelbrecht says the Aventis application to bring StarLink to South Africa is being reviewed by an advisory committee. She says a final decision is unlikely before January. “What happens in other countries is going to be taken into account by the committee,” Engelbrecht adds. “The experience in the US will play a role.” Aventis has offered to buy back much of its maize crop grown in the US this year. The company says it has new data to demonstrate that fears about allergies are unfounded and has asked for temporary approval of the maize from the US authorities so that it can wend its way through the food supply without disrupting markets. There is no record of StarLink maize shipments having been imported into South Africa, though it may be present in foodstuffs imported from the US. “In other countries the StarLink contaminations have been picked up by consumer groups who insist on testing food for genetic modification,” says Earthlife Africa’s Glenda Lindsay. “In South Africa the NGOs don’t have the resources to do this.”
On December 1 last year the government finally pushed through the Genetically Modified Organisms Act of 1997 in an attempt to tighten regulation of the fast- growing field of genetic engineering.
But Mayet says the Act still falls short of international safeguards. “Monitoring by civil society groups is extremely difficult. Information about foreseeable impacts and emergency measures in the case of an accident is not available,” she says. “These are typical risk-management measures and should be the hallmarks of any bio- safety legislation. But they are not set out in the Act or its regulations.” The Aventis application to introduce StarLink crops is one of 111 permit applications received by the department between January and October relating to genetically modified organisms. The applications, most from the US, are for a variety of activities, including commercial releases, field trials, contained use and commodity imports for human and animal consumption. A total of 106 applications have been successful and five are under review.
Before the Act was passed last year, 165 field trials were approved and two commercial releases were authorised, for the commercial planting of an insect- resistant maize crop and an insect- resistant type of cotton.