Effects Of Drought, Production Of Ethanol Concentrating Aflatoxin In Remaining 2012 Corn Supply
(Reuters) - Problems with the toxic residue of a mold that attacked the 2012 drought-hit U.S. corn crop may worsen this summer and autumn as Midwest farmers blend off tainted supplies held in storage, grain experts say.
The substance, aflatoxin, is a chronic problem in dry, hot southern states like Texas where stressed crops are vulnerable to the mold. But in 2012, the worst U.S. drought in more than half a century extended the aflatoxin threat moved northward into the heart of the Midwest, resulting in the biggest outbreak since the 1980s.
"As we get into summer, you are going to see the worst of it," said Doug Bartlett, co-owner of Midwest Farm Services, an advisory service in Higginsville, Missouri. "We have tight corn supplies and when we get down to the nitty gritty, there is going to be a lot of the aflatoxin left over, and it will have to be blended off into the new crop," he said.
Aflatoxin can sicken humans and animals if ingested and is carcinogenic. So corn users - from pet food and livestock feed makers to vegoil and sweetener producers - test for it, and reject tainted supplies. Ethanol makers, which consume 40 percent of U.S. corn output, can be even more picky because the aflatoxins concentrate during the distilling process, contaminating dried distillers' grains, a valuable ethanol byproduct sold for feed.
EDIT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/19/us-usa-crops-aflatoxin-idUSBRE93I11I20130419
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Don't do anything about the problem except hide it."
> Aflatoxin can sicken humans and animals if ingested and is carcinogenic.
> "We have tight corn supplies and when we get down to the nitty gritty, there is going
> to be a lot of the aflatoxin left over, and it will have to be blended off into the new crop,"
> So corn users - from pet food and livestock feed makers to vegoil and sweetener producers -
> test for it, and reject tainted supplies
... unless, of course, the profit-seekers have successfully short-circuited the testing
by deliberately contaminating the healthy, new crop with the toxic old supplies for the
sole reason of blagging their way around the (already loose) standards ...
(cf., "Don't test cows for BSE as if you find it, you'll not be able to sell it into the food chain."
