Tuesday February 13 6:06 PM ET

 Farmers Warned: Avoid Biotech Corn

 By PHILIP BRASHER, AP Farm Writer

 WASHINGTON (AP) - The biotech corn that spawned nationwide recalls of
taco shells still poses a problem for farmers this year, even though the
seed is no longer for sale.

 The National Corn Growers Association warned its members Tuesday that
stray kernels from lastyear's crop of StarLink corn could sprout in
fields and cross-pollinate with other varieties of cornif farmers aren't
careful.

 StarLink corn was never approved for human consumption because of
unresolved questions about its potential for causing allergic reactions.
Many farmers didn't know about the restriction,or else ignored it, and
the biotech grain wound up contaminating at least 80 million bushels of
last  year's corn harvest.

 Kraft Foods was among several companies that recalled taco shells and
other products after StarLink was detected in them.

 There is a danger that stray StarLink plants will contaminate corn
fields this year, ``further compounding the problems of keeping StarLink 
out of the supply of U.S. corn,'' said Fred Yoder, chairman of the growers 
association's biotech working group.

 Farmers are advised to grow something other than corn, such as soybeans, 
on last year's StarLink acreage, or else plant herbicide-tolerant varieties 
of corn. Those varieties can be sprayed with a weedkiller that will kill 
the StarLink plants.

 But even that option has its own potential problem, because corn that's
immune to the popular weedkiller, Roundup, isn't approved for sale in
Europe.

 Farmers also are being warned not to plant any corn seed that hasn't
been tested for the presence of StarLink.

 StarLink is one of several types of corn that have been genetically
engineered to kill an insect pest, but it is the only one not allowed in
food.

 The American Corn Growers Association, a smaller group that is critical
of biotechnology, has said that farmers should be compensated by
StarLink's maker, Aventis CropScience, for any contaminated crops grown
this year.

 Meanwhile Tuesday, an anti-biotech group released a report prepared by
the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) on attitudes of
consumers toward genetically engineered products. Virtually everyone
questioned in a series of focus groups the agency sponsored last year
believed that foods ought to be labeled if they contain any genetically
engineered ingredients.

 ``Consumers want to have information on how their food is prepared for
a variety of reasons,'' said Richard Caplan of the U.S. Public Interest
Research Group.

 FDA has refused to impose mandatory labeling on biotech foods. The
agency says there is no justification for labeling food with biotech
ingredients that are essentially the same as conventional ones. The food
industry fears such labeling could unfairly stigmatize biotech products.