Derryl McLaren, a farmer who heads Iowa's senate ag committee, sees StarLink as one reason why his state needs a contracting law to make risks clear to producers.

In the future, when farmers grow high-value crops under contract, they won't own the seed or have a label, he says. That's why a state law must require contracts to spell out risks.

"I think when this all plays out, we'll look back and realize the StarLink issue was worse than Jimmy Carter's grain embargo," he says of the genetically modified corn approved only for livestock that slipped into the food supply and spooked buyers in Japan and other export markets.

McLaren's bill resembles a model contracting bill from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller that aims to give producers more contract rights. Iowa already bans making contracts confidential so they can't be compared. Some in Miller's office worry that the McLaren bill might again allow contracting companies to restrict disclosure of contracts. Miller's office is the only one in the nation currently posting contracts on a web site if producers send them in. The contracting company, contract information and prices are posted. The producer's name isn't.

"You can imagine all the opposition there is to this bill," McClaren says. Lobbying against it are hog integrators and most of agribusiness, he says. The new law, drafted with the help of Iowa Farm Bureau "would tighten disclosure just a little bit," McLaren says.

The biggest issue, he says, is liability. "The chemical companies, technology providers and seed companies are trying to pass all of the liagbility to the producers" with contracts.

** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed for research and educational purposes only. **