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By ALAN CROWELL
Staff Writer 11/16/2007

enlarge Staff photo by Jeff Pouland

CONTAMINATED CORN: C.R. Lawn, founder of Fedco Seeds, holds a variety of sweet corn seed in the company's warehouse in Clinton that showed a trace amount contamination when tested for genetically modified organism.

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Founder of FEDCO Seeds, a gardening supply cooperative that pledges not to sell genetically engineered seeds, Lawn has firsthand experience with the problem.

For seven years, FEDCO has tested random samples of corn seed to ensure it is not contaminated by genetically engineered plants. For the first time this year, three samples from the same supplier tested positive -- evidence that pollen from genetically altered corn contaminated the supplier's crop.

"The problem with pollen is you can't fence it in," said Lawn, who would like to see the state adopt a 660-foot buffer around Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn, a type of corn that is genetically altered to produce its own pesticides.

For about a decade, Maine was the only state in the country where the use of Bt corn was not allowed. That changed in July, when the Maine Board of Pesticides Control licensed the use of Bt corn.

Farmers argued that new Bt lines offered growers competitive advantages.

According to the National Science Foundation, Bt corn accounts for about 35 percent of the corn acreage in the United States and is gaining in popularity.

What remains to be determined before crops are planted next spring, however, are the rules under which farmers can use it.

Among the rules under consideration are requiring growers to keep records of their use of the seeds and receive special training.

At today's hearing, the public is invited to weigh in on those regulations.

Lawn said he favors a buffer because corn in one farmer's field has the potential to pollinate corn in another farmer's field, potentially spreading unwanted genes.

Of the three seed samples that tested positive this year for the presence of genetically engineered material, two showed a trace amount of contamination and one came back positive, meaning it showed more than a trace amount.

The test used was very, very sensitive, said Lawn, but the results were still cause for concern.

"My feeling is that the seed industry is going to have to be adamant about protecting their (seed varieties)," said Lawn

All three lots that tested positive were taken off the market, he said. Two of those varieties will not be included in this year's catalogue. He said the other variety will be tested before orders are shipped.

"Corn pollen is scattered by the wind. If you are selling contaminated seeds .... there is the risk that it could spread to other people's corn who don't want it," said Lawn.

Some studies have found that the pesticides produced by the plants, not only protect them against crop-damaging insects but may also have negative impacts on aquatic insects that serve as food for fish.

Logan Perkins, campaign organizer for Protect Maine Farmers, said there are simply too many questions that haven't been answered about the short-term and long-term effects of the Bt plants.

"Bt corn has only been on the market for ten years and in the world of agriculture that is only the blink of an eye," she said.

Perkins said that her organization advocates the use of a mile-wide buffer around Bt corn crops.

John Jemison, an extension professor of water quality and soil science at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and member of the pesticide board, said several of the state's large dairy farmers argued in favor of using the Bt lines.

Jemison said his own research has not shown significant yield benefits when the Bt lines are used, but he said the genetically altered seeds do provide farmers with another tool.

Use of the Bt lines also allows farmers to avoid spreading pesticides and potentially exposing themselves to the chemicals, said Jemison. As far as the unknowns with genetically altered seeds, Jemison said there are also questions about the effects of the insecticides farmers use to counter the same pests controlled by Bt crops.

"There is always going to be a certain amount of uncertainty related to everything," he said.

He said he suspects that the rules that the board of pesticides develops for the use of the Bt seeds will be more conservative than those used by other states.

Alan Crowell -- 474-9534, Ext. 342

acrowell@centralmaine.com

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