April 24, 2003

As Reported in the News
The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology

A biotechnology company has paid a $72,000 fine for failing to promptly tell the government that it found a genetically engineered corn mixed with another crop, reports AP.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. was fined for its delay in telling the Environmental Protection Agency about the mix-up, said Amy Miller, an enforcement officer for the agency. 

The Iowa-based company has found that 12 corn plants had traces of a crop it had genetically designed to resist rootworm, a pest. The incident, involving a minuscule amount of corn, occurred at a Pioneer test center on the island of Kauai, well removed from any commercial food or seed production.

"Our primary goal is to make sure it doesn't get into the food supply," said Amy Miller, an enforcement officer overseeing the case at the EPA's regional office in San Francisco. "We feel that based on the testing, there is no risk that it did," she told the Washington Post.

Pioneer was cited in December for growing rootworm-resistant corn beyond its allotted field in a 1,260-foot buffer zone - too close to other corn fields. After EPA officials found the error, the company destroyed the corn in the buffer strip and planted regular seed corn in its place.

As part of its accord with EPA, Pioneer tested the new seed corn in the buffer zone - about 300,000 plants. That's when the company discovered traces of the latest mix-up, Miller said.

However, EPA believes experimental corn grown in another Pioneer-owned plot is to blame for the contamination. That crop, which also is rootworm-resistant, is monitored by the Agriculture Department because the plot is smaller than 10 acres.

EPA is in charge of regulating fields 10 acres or larger, writes AP.

Jim Rogers, a department spokesman, said an investigation is under way but declined to give details.

Pioneer doesn't believe it broke any laws, said Courtney Chabot Dreyer, a company spokeswoman.

"The important thing is it doesn't affect neighboring crops, and it's not in the commercial seed and grain supply," said Courtney Chabot Dreyer, a spokeswoman for Pioneer, a subsidiary of DuPont Co. Unexpected genes were found in only 12 corn plants out of more than 300,000 tested. "To put that into perspective, that's four-thousandths of a percent," she told the Post. She added that the company would seek to improve its practices.

The EPA was disturbed by the company's failure to notify it promptly when the experimental genes were found. That was a breach of an agreement made by EPA and the company in December, after Pioneer acknowledged separate violations on another nearby plot and was fined nearly $10,000. 

"I won't make any excuses for the company," Dreyer said. "We were fined $72,000 for missing a deadline. It was a regrettable oversight, and we take complete responsibility for it," she told the Post.

As Reported in the News is a weekday feature that summarizes one of the most interesting stories of the day, as reported by media from around the world, and selected by Initiative staff from a scan of the news wires. The Initiative is not a news organization and does not have reporters on its staff: Posting of these stories should not be interpreted as an endorsement of a particular viewpoint, but merely as a summary of news reported by legitimate news-gathering organizations or from press releases sent out by other organizations.