Aventis CropScience today said it has instructed its seed distributors to stop sales of StarLink(TM) corn hybrids for the 2001 growing season. The company said sales will not resume until the company receives a food clearance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The stop sale is aimed at restoring public confidence in our company's efforts to assure that
StarLink(TM) corn grain does not enter food channels. StarLink corn is approved for use only in
domestic animal feed and non-food industrial uses.

Our company is in active discussions with federal regulatory agencies to address issues related to the 2000 harvest for StarLink corn. Our company will announce as soon as possible an enhanced program in conjunction with StarLink growers to verify that 2000 StarLink harvests will be delivered only into proper non-food channels.

Aventis CropScience strongly supports the release of protein test kits by Strategic Diagnostics Inc. for use with corn grain. While the number of these kits is limited at this time, they will be made available immediately to grain delivery locations to verify that StarLink grain remains in proper channels. These test kits are not suited, however, for testing of processed food products. Further information is available from Strategic Diagnostics Inc. at (800) 544-8881.

In StarLink, the Cry9C protein -- the element of regulatory attention -- has not been detected in
any of the tests run to date on taco shells. We will continue to work with regulatory agencies and
food companies until this issue has been resolved. 

Company news release
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