US Curbs Planting Of 'Gene Modified' Supercorn

                 Among the restrictions, coming after a backlash, is
                 a requirement that farmers plant 20-50 per cent of
                 their acreage with conventional corn

                 WASHINGTON -- The US government has told
                 farmers to curb the planting of genetically modified corn
                 amid a backlash against biotech food products in
                 Europe.

                 The new restrictions, which were released on Friday and
                 are effective immediately, make unprecedented demands
                 on the biotech seeds producers and on farmers who
                 wish to plant so-called Bt corn, which has been
                 endowed with a gene that allows the corn to make its
                 own insecticide.

                 Among the new restrictions is a requirement that farmers
                 plant 20 per cent to 50 per cent of their acreage with
                 conventional corn, which some farmers said would be
                 burdensome and some experts said could lead to a
                 decline in plantings of the high-tech seeds.

                 The modified corn known as Bt corn has enjoyed a
                 meteoric rise in popularity among farmers since it was
                 approved for sale in 1996, and was planted on more
                 than one-third of US corn acres last year.

                 But some experts have warned that large-scale plantings
                 of Bt corn may be speeding the evolution of "superbugs"
                 -- insects resistant to standard insecticides.

                 Then, last summer, Cornell University scientists
                 presented preliminary evidence from laboratory studies
                 that pollen from Bt corn could blow onto milkweed
                 plants and kill monarch butterfly caterpillars.

                 Although field studies aimed at measuring the true
                 ecological impact of Bt corn on monarchs are not yet
                 complete, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA)
                 suggested on Friday that farmers voluntarily plant their
                 conventional cornfields upwind of their biotech fields so
                 the Bt corn pollen would not blow onto these refuges.

                 Milkweed, the only plant on which monarch butterflies
                 lay their eggs, grows around cornfields.

                 Environmentalists praised the new regulations, which the
                 EPA negotiated with the biotechnology industry, as a
                 step in the right direction.

                 "Many of the companies and industries have gone to
                 great lengths to belittle concerns about toxic pollen on
                 butterflies and the development of resistance in insects,"
                 said Ms Rebecca Goldburg, a scientist at the
                 Environmental Defense Fund in New York and a
                 member of a National Academy of Sciences panel that
                 is preparing a report on the environmental impact of
                 gene-altered corn.

                 "What EPA has done is to confirm that there are some
                 serious environmental problems concerning the
                 widespread planting of Bt corn." -- New York Times

                       Adapted from The Straits Times, 18 Jan 2000.