gli OGM 'inquinano' la catena alimentare?

["AlessandroGimona"<agimona@libero.it>]

Cari tutti,

ecco una storia che esemplifica come sia per lo meno difficile mantenere 
separati OGM da prodotti normali che hanno esattamente lo stesso 
aspetto.
Come ricorderete, vi era gia' stato un incidente in cui semi (di 
colza)GM
erano stati scambiati per 'normali' e messi a dimora in mezza Europa.

La storia sotto tratta del mais AVENTIS, (non autorizzato per il consumo 
umano) che stava per finire sulle tavole di consumatori USA e non.

E' facile immaginare che se e' difficile tenere separati prodotti GM
dalle controparti non modificate nel mondo sviluppato, cio'e'  
estremamente arduo in paesi del terzo mondo in cui le infrastrutture e 
gli organismi di controllo sono molto meno efficienti.
Le popolazioni di quei paesi sono dunque esposte ad un ulteriore rischio

Spero interessi,
saluti
Alessandro Gimona
agimona@libero.it

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AVENTIS TO PAY FOR US TO BUY MODIFIED CORN
         October 2, 2000
         Dow Jones
         Bruce Ingersoll
         Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
         WASHINGTON‹Aventis SA was cited as agreeing to pay for a 
multimillion-dollar
         government effort to keep its variety of genetically modified 
corn from
         tainting the U.S. food supply.
         The story explains that the U.S. Agriculture Department will 
buy all of the
         corn grown this year from an Aventis variety of bioengineered 
seed, and the
         French drug and biotechnology company will reimburse the 
government for all
         the costs, Clinton administration officials said. The corn, 
sold as
         StarLink, hasn't been cleared for human consumption because 
regulators fear
         it might cause allergic reactions.
         Administration officials want to prevent a repeat of Kraft 
Foods Inc.'s
         massive taco-shell recall last month, triggered by the 
detection of StarLink
         corn meal in some shells. Grain exporters want the 
administration to
         reassure Japan and other major customers that they won't get 
unwanted
         gene-spliced corn or soybeans in the shipments from the U.S.
         The USDA plans to take title to virtually the entire crop of 
StarLink
         corn‹about 45 million bushels‹and then make sure that none of 
it gets into
         food channels. The corn must instead be fed to livestock or 
processed into
         ethanol, a fuel additive. Of eight bioengineered varieties of 
corn on the
         market, only StarLink is unapproved for use in food.
         Aventis spokesman Richard Rountree was cited as saying that 
this cooperative
         action demonstrates the company's commitment "to provide 
additional
         confidence in the integrity of the country's food supply."
         Rountree said that some 315,000 acres, mostly in the Midwest, 
were planted
         this year with StarLink, amounting to less than 1% of the U.S. 
crop. Farm
         analysts peg the market value of that corn at $70 million. But 
a USDA
         spokeswoman said that the purchase plan could cost as much as 
$100 million,
         including storage fees, shipping charges and premiums for 
farmers.
         Farmers will have the option of hanging onto their StarLink 
crop so long as
         they agree to feed it to their cattle and hogs, but they won't 
be paid as
         much as farmers who turn their corn over to the government. 
Because the USDA
         will recoup a lot of its upfront costs by reselling the corn to 
livestock
         feedlots and ethanol plants, Aventis won't be liable for a huge
         reimbursement to the government.
Alessandro Gimona
agimona@libero.it