U.S. Fines Swiss Company Over Sale of Altered Seed

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U.S. Fines Swiss Company Over Sale of Altered Seed
By TOM WRIGHT

AUSANNE, Switzerland, April 8 - Syngenta, the Swiss agrochemicals company, was fined $375,000 by the United States Department of Agriculture for inadvertently selling unapproved genetically altered corn seed, the company said Friday.

The Department of Agriculture also required Syngenta to develop a training program to keep the mix-up in seeds from happening again, the company said.

"We welcome the settlement with the U.S.D.A. and the government's conclusion that Syngenta's misidentification of Bt 10 corn, while a regrettable mistake, does not pose any risks to consumers, public health or the environment," said Mike Mack, chief operating officer of Syngenta Seeds, a unit of Syngenta in Golden Valley, Minn.

Markus Payer, a spokesman for Syngenta in Basel, Switzerland, said the European Union had also asked for details on the mix-up in the unapproved seed, Bt 10. On Tuesday, the European Commission said it thought that about 1,000 metric tons (1,102 tons) of the unauthorized corn entered union countries as animal feed, corn flour and corn oil.

The European Union, which has strict limits on the use of genetically modified crops, also asked Syngenta how to identify corn grown from the Bt 10 seed, Mr. Payer said.

Syngenta reiterated Friday that the Bt 10 corn was almost biologically identical to Bt 11, another genetically modified corn seed that has been approved in both the United States and Europe.

"This has no impact on the safety of the corn," Syngenta said in a statement Friday.

Environmentalists, however, say that the unapproved corn could promote resistance to antibiotics, a crucial difference between Bt 10 and Bt 11.

Syngenta says it believes that the problem began with an inadvertent switching of the two types of corn seed by its researchers in the United States in the mid-1990's when some Bt 10 seeds were probably mislabeled as Bt 11, Mr. Payer said.

After Bt 11, which produces a protein toxic to the European corn borer, won approval in the United States and Europe, the company set aside the development of Bt 10.

About 14,000 bags of Bt 10 seeds, or enough to plant 37,000 acres, were sold from 2001 to 2004, mainly to farmers in the United States, but also in Canada and Argentina, Mr. Payer said. Farmers could have produced an estimated 150,000 tons of corn from this area, Mr. Payer said. Assuming export of one-fifth of that, which is the overall ratio of corn exported to the European Union, then the amount of Bt 10 corn that ended up in the European countries was probably quite small, he said.

Syngenta said it became aware of the problem late last year while conducting a review of breeding lines in the United States that were supposed to be planted with Bt 11 seeds, Mr. Payer said.

The company could face more fines from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is conducting its own investigation.