The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

234 the world according to monsantoCBS, Dr. Marc Rosenberg, an allergist advising the government in this sorryaffair, confirmed that the symptoms “varied from just abdominal pain anddiarrhea [and] skin rashes to a very small group having very severe lifethreateningreactions.”As a very detailed report from Friends of the Earth pointed out in July2001, “The StarLink debacle is a case study in the near total dependenceof our regulatory agencies on the ‘regulated’ biotech and food industries,and...in [their] regulatory incompetence.” 29 The group reported that theFDA took a week to confirm the presence of StarLink in the food chain, fora reason that it never would have suspected: “We later learned that this delaywas due to the simple fact that after two years of StarLink cultivation onhundreds of thousands of acres across the country,* the FDA still did nothave the expertise to even test for this potentially allergenic protein.” 30 To beable to conduct laboratory tests, the FDA had had to ask for help fromAventis. Likewise, when the EPA was forced to establish a test to measurethe allergenicity of the Bt protein, it had to turn to the manufacturer to supplyit with a sample of the molecule. Finally, claiming that it could not isolateenough of the protein expressed in the plant, the company supplied asynthetic substitute from the E. coli bacterium. Experts pointed out that thetest would be biased because “the same protein is not necessarily identicalin different species.” 31 After months of procrastination, the EPA cautiouslyconcluded that there was “a medium likelihood that StarLink [was] an allergen.”32 The health authorities then buried the file, losing a perfect opportunityto understand why the consumption of corn products had madehundreds of Americans gravely ill and almost killed some of them.No to GM WheatIn the interim, the debacle had cost Aventis $1 billion. First, the companyhad to indemnify the food distributors that had withdrawn from theirshelves 10 million corn-based products. Then it had to repurchase stocks ofStarLink seeds from all the dealers, farmers, and millers. But the magnitudeof the catastrophe exceeded the darkest predictions: tests conducted by*It is estimated that StarLink at the time accounted for 1 percent of the corn crop in the UnitedStates, approximately 370,000 acres.