Ms.
Betsy Holden
President and CEO
Kraft Foods North America
3 Lakes Drive
Northfield, IL 60093
Re:
Avoiding Product Contamination by Engineered Corn Similar to StarLink
Dear
Ms. Holden:
StarLink corn contamination in the last year had severe
implications for food processors. Taco
Bell suffered a $60 million loss of sales at its franchises. Kraft Foods recalled 2.5 million boxes of
taco shells. Mission Foods recalled over 300 products. Sales of some products suffered both in the
U.S. and abroad. Kraft is also facing a class-action lawsuit by parties who
claim to have been made ill by the company’s StarLink-contaminated corn
products. These losses could have been avoided if the biotech company and the
government agencies involved had been more careful when considering whether to
register the crop for planting.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
considering whether to re-register two varieties of engineered corn that
exhibit characteristics of known allergens similar to those that led to the
prohibition of StarLink corn for human consumption. We recently found evidence of this in the EPA's own files.
Enclosed, please find a short submission we sent to EPA
Administrator Christine Todd Whitman outlining our concerns. We suggest that you share it with your
science experts for their review, so they might advise your company whether to
avoid genetically engineered corn from this year’s harvest.
The EPA has announced that it will decide by October 15th
whether to re-register these crops for planting next year. The agency is under tremendous pressure by
the biotechnology industry to approve the crops without necessarily examining
all the scientific evidence as is the EPA's stated policy. Regardless of what
they do, we understand that over the next year independent health experts will
investigate numerous unexplained life threatening allergic reactions to
products made with corn to see if allergens have been introduced through
engineered varieties.
If you have any questions about our findings or the crop
registration process, please contact us at 202-783-7400 ext. 251.
Sincerely and on behalf of the Genetically Engineered
Food Alert coalition,
Larry Bohlen , Friends of the Earth
Ellen Hickey, Pesticide Action Network of North America
Julie
Miles, The State PIRGS
Matt Rand, National Environmental Trust
Kristin Dawkins, Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy