EXCERPTS: A study backed by the international group Friends of the Earth found that samples of World Food Program shipments collected in Guatemala included StarLink, a corn long ago pulled from the market in the United States because of concerns it could provoke allergic reactions.

Julio Sanchez of the Humboldt Center in Nicaragua said the World Food Program "is placing at risk our children and pregnant women, the most vulnerable people in our society."

"The investigation reveals the incapacity of the state to protect national biosecurity", said Adrian Pacheco, spokesman for Costa Rica's Social Ecology Association, at a news conference there. "Although the authorities have not authorized the cultivation of (modified) corn, for example, it is entering the country as a grain without any kind of control."
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Environmentalists claim modified corn included in U.N. aid
By SERGIO DE LEON
Associated Press
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/02/16/build/world/50-gecorn.inc

GUATEMALA CITY -- Environmental groups said Wednesday they have discovered that banned genetically modified food -- including a variety of corn forbidden for humans in the United States -- is being handed out in U.N. food aid to Central America and the Caribbean.

A study backed by the international group Friends of the Earth found that samples of World Food Program shipments collected in Guatemala included StarLink, a corn long ago pulled from the market in the United States because of concerns it could provoke allergic reactions.

Discovery of StarLink corn in consumer products in the United States prompted several high-profile supermarket recalls of cornmeal, corn dogs, taco shells, soup and chili mixes in the United States in 2000 and 2001.

The study looked at 77 samples of imported corn included in aid shipments or sold on the open market. Eighty percent was reported to include genetically modified material.

Some of the samples here showed a Monsanto-developed variety which is restricted by the European Union, member of the Central American Alliance in Defense of Biodiversity told a news conference here.

"We have alarming news about the food aid that the country is receiving," said Mario Godinez, director of the local environmental group Ceiba.

Similar news conferences occurred simultaneously in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador as part of an international campaign against the growing use of genetically modified crops. Many activists say they are a risk to health and to the environment. Backers say they provide more and cheaper food to the world and say no health risks have been proven.

Julio Sanchez of the Humboldt Center in Nicaragua said the World Food Program "is placing at risk our children and pregnant women, the most vulnerable people in our society."

In a Friends of the Earth news release, he said the programs should purchase food locally instead of importing modified foods from abroad.

In Rome, World Food Program spokeswoman Anthea Web said that "the U.N. WHO, FAO and ourselves have found absolutely no evidence there is any health safety issue" with genetically modified foods.

"They're eaten safely by millions of people everyday from Boston to Brussels to Buenos Aires," she said.

The director of Guatemala's National Coordinating Committee of Farm Organizations, Daniel Pascual, alleged that the introduction of genetically modified foods endangered the country's native varieties of corn as well as the health of consumers.

A spokeswoman for Guatemala's Agriculture Ministry, Maria del Carmen Fuentes, said she was unaware of the study, but added, "we are worried in any case and an expert in the area will be assigned to indicate as soon as possible what happened."

She insisted, however, that "at no moment would we harm the population."

"The investigation reveals the incapacity of the state to protect national biosecurity", said Adrian Pacheco, spokesman for Costa Rica's Social Ecology Association, at a news conference there. "Although the authorities have not authorized the cultivation of (modified) corn, for example, it is entering the country as a grain without any kind of control."

He called for a moratorium on genetically modified crop imports because they could be planted by local farmers and contaminate local varieties.

The WPA's Webb said that the decision on accepting foods "rests with the host government."

She that because most of the food aid comes from the United States, a center of modified food production, "We're really in a tough place" in trying to avoid modified foods.

Friends of the Earth complained in 2002 that it had found StarLink corn in U.S. aid shipments to Bolivia.