June 15, 1999

Several environmental and consumer groups have asked President Clinton to join them in seeking a ban on genetically modified corn that a Cornell University study found may be endangering the monarch butterfly. They call the Bt varieties "monster crops."

The groups made three demands: deny registration and renewals of all Bt crops; implement independent, premarket environmental and human health testing and labeling of all genetically modified foods so consumer can make a choice about the food they eat, and "stop forcing" genetically modified foods on nations that have signaled a refusal to accept "the risks associated with genetically modified products."

In a June 14 letter to President Clinton, the groups said a Cornell University study "has revealed that pollen from genetically engineered Bt corn could be killing America's favorite butterfly -- the monarch." The study found, they add, "that nearly half the monarch caterpillars feeding on Bt corn pollen died after four days compared with no deaths among caterpillars that fed on normal corn pollen or no pollen at all." That could mean the monarch "is seriously threatened by Bt corn."

Groups signing the letter included the Campaign for Food Safety, Community Nutrition Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, Green Choice Party of New York, Organic Consumers Association, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Pure Food Alliance of Massachusetts.