The Husk is Off the Corn

We have heard in the news over the past month or so that some genetically modified (GM) corn, unapproved for human consumption, has made its way into the human food chain in the form of taco shells and other corn tortilla products.

The company responsible for letting the cat out of the bag is named Aventis. We'll set aside for the moment the obvious question about what that hell a name like "Aventis" is supposed to mean, and go straight to the question: how did StarLink (again, what does that name mean?), their GM corn product, get into the human food supply, and how do they intend to get it out?

The latter answer is easier: they don't. No sir, because, you see, there's no need to. No, StarLink is of course perfectly safe for humans, and never mind that the FDA has not granted approval for human consumption, now that it's out there, we should just go ahead and let them sell it.

Not surprisingly, Agribusiness Secretary Dan Glickman agrees.

As usual in politics and business, it's best to follow the money. In doing so, we find an interesting tidbit: Aventis has already arranged to purchase the entire crop of StarLink corn. Read a little closer, and you'll find out exactly how this is to happen:

USDA will initially purchase the corn from the farmers, handle the corn to ensure that it does not enter the food supply, and then Aventis will reimburse USDA for the cost.

So we have the government purchasing tainted corn, then the private corporation which caused the contamination in the first place buying it from the government. In my college days, we called that money laundering, or perhaps here it's "corn laundering."

In any case, we now see the government acting in such a way as to allow the corporate criminals to continue their evil ways, without even the hint of a slap on the wrist.

Now, as for the former question, how did the corn get into the human food supply? The Des Moines Register reports that as little as one kernel out of 400 could trigger a positive result in the test for StarLink, and that StarLink and normal corn were accidentally mixed in grain elevators.

But anyone who's seen the Alien movies has to be a little suspicious. You'll remember that what at first appeared in the successful film series to be the serendipitous discovery of an extremely dangerous alien species turned out to be a carefully planned rendezvous with the species, and later was revealed as the product of genetic engineering by the enigmatically named "Company." Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, why not just let the alien StarLink corn be sold for human consumption?

Aventis suggests -- and the Department of Agriculture desperately wants to please its corporate masters -- that keeping a closer watch on GM foods is too little, too late, so why bother? Those of us who have to eat the frankenfoods, however, must have a different position. We have a right to know what we're eating, and we have a right to choose not to eat products that we don't trust.

Agribusiness apologists like Henry Miller to the contrary, "Joe Six-pack" (itself an outrageously patronizing nickname) does want and need to know what he's eating. It's one of the choices we can make as individuals in the increasingly corporate-controlled society in which we live. No corporate criminal will regulate itself out of the market; that's the government's job, and "we, the people"'s job.