FAIRMOUNT, Ill.--Julie Catlett remembers well the panic that set in during an already-busy harvest last fall when she heard that StarLink genetically engineered corn had made it into the human food chain.

"We did have StarLink, but we sold less than 500 units," said Catlett, president and owner of Trisler Seed Farms Inc. in Vermilion County about two miles from the Champaign County line.

"After the first panic, we called our growers to make sure everything we sold was isolated in bins," she said. "It was, so we thought, 'We know where ours is.'"

Catlett then initiated the second phase of the effort to keep the seed out of the commercial stream. She and general manager T.J. Hale made sure every lot of seed leaving the plant was tested at least once to make sure it wasn't contaminated with StarLink genetic material. They found nothing.

Hale figures to date, that testing and retesting has cost at least $ 10,000. StarLink also cost Trisler coveted status -- a place on Frito-Lay's list of approved food-grade hybrids.

"They kicked us off," Catlett said.

She said the recall of the genetically engineered corn, which found its way into the human food chain although it was not approved for human consumption, taught her a lesson.

"In the seed business, you try to be everything to everyone, but you soon realize you can't do everything," Catlett said. "We listen to what farmers want, and StarLink gave them a different technology."

Both StarLink and the popular Monsanto Inc. technologies were engineered to kill corn borers that tunnel into stalks and cause economic damage in Midwestern fields.

"We were keeping our options open, but they got shut pretty quickly," Catlett said.

Trisler, founded 65 years ago by Catlett's father, Lyle Trisler, has identified several market niches, and one of them is doing business overseas.

"We sell corn and (soy)beans retail in Indiana and Illinois, we grow on contract for other growers, and we have a huge export business to 13 countries in Europe and Asia," Catlett said.

"This genetically modified organisms (GMO) issue has slowed overseas demand," Hale said. "GMO hybrids have to be tested, and protocols and tolerances aren't standard between countries like Greece and Italy, two of our big customers.

"There are a lot of contradictions."

Ryan Johnson at the Illinois Crop Improvement Association, where Trisler's samples are tested, said the technology the association uses gives definitive answers about contamination.

"It's quantitative rather than qualitative," Johnson said. "With the strip test, one line means no and the other yes. Ours changes color based on the amount of the protein in the sample. You run it through an auto analyzer, and it gives you an approximated percentage of contamination."

Dennis Thompson, head of the association, said the association worked with people in the business to see what kind of test was appropriate to offer.

"There are a lot of stone walls," he said. "The U.S. Agriculture Department tests, companies test, and no one's willing to validate."

Thompson said the association decided to offer a definitive test to support its seed industry members.

"It's a little more finite and precise," he said. "The role we have played is offering a higher level of technology."

Trisler started selling corn seed overseas about 25 years ago, mainly through word of mouth and a few ads in seed trade publications. Hale said buyers like the quality seed the company produces.

"One of our biggest accounts, a huge company in Italy, was buying in the U.S. for several years, changing companies every years," he said. "They've been with us 20 years."

All Trisler's corn seed is grown on 5,000 acres within 15 miles of the processing plant. The company employs about 40 people full time and 250 during the summer season.

All winter, employees haul in the seed and package corn for shipment to Europe and Asia, to other seed companies and to dealers. When planting starts, they begin processing and packing soybeans grown on about 7,000 acres, some in southern Illinois, so different maturities are available.

Employees pack seed for overseas customers in containers for shipment.

Catlett said Trisler doesn't export any soybeans.

"There's not a high enough margin in it," she said.

Brent Graves, who's in charge of specialty grains for Trisler, said seed for export is typically packed in smaller bags that hold 25,000 to 50,000 kernels, which compares with 80,000 kernels in standard bags U.S. farmers use.

"Farms are smaller overseas," Graves said.

Hale said Trisler's overseas sales network grew because word got around.

"Selling abroad involves a lot of red tape and headaches, and a lot of companies don't want to do it, but we deal with it," he said.

Catlett's academic background didn't prepare her for the challenges she would encounter when she entered the family business nine years ago.

"I lived in Florida and got a degree in maritime, in seamanship," she said. "It has nothing to do with this, but it was also a male-dominated industry.

"It's frustrating to be a woman in the seed business because it takes a while to get recognition, and I have to work twice as hard for it," said Catlett, who also farms adjacent to the plant with her husband, Greg.

"I am not a figurehead," she said of her Trisler role in retail sales.

Catlett said farmers have been spooked by the biotech backlash from companies such as Decatur's Archer Daniels Midland, which does a huge export business and has announced that it won't accept the genetically engineered varieties its overseas buyers reject.

"Farmers are backing off from Roundup Ready corn because they're afraid there won't be a market for it," she said of one new product engineered so that a popular, fast-acting herbicide can be used in fields where it's growing.

Trisler sells Roundup Ready corn and also Bt corn, another technology that kills corn borers.

"There's been no corn borer infestation around here for several years, and farmers don't see the benefit in it," Catlett said. "We're in ADM's back pocket, but when you get away from this area, farmers don't have any problem with these varieties.

"Roundup Ready corn's very acceptable in southern Illinois and Indiana. When you go west of here, we can't produce enough to meet the need."

Hale and Catlett are both working through seed industry associations to address these issues.

Hale said seed trade representatives are trying to head off legislation that might restrict farmers' freedom to plant GMO varieties. He said he worries about the clout that processors such as ADM and Decatur's A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co. have in Springfield.

"If farmers aren't growing GMOs, that makes their operations cheaper, and they carry a lot of weight," he said. "But GMOs offer farmers economic benefits, and with the farm economy the way it is, you don't want to take that away from them.

"Also, in the long run, GMOs offer ecological benefits to society because farmers don't have to use pesticides or they can use safer ones. We have to think about that."

John Herath, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, said state Agriculture Director Joe Hampton sent a letter to seed companies earlier this year asking them not to market varieties not approved by overseas buyers.

"We've had a series of meetings with seed companies, commodity groups and other organizations to talk about how we can work together for a strong future for biotechnology in the state, how we can develop new technology and use biotech products assuring consumer confidence," Herath said.

Hale believes the issue will pass with time.

"It will work itself out in the long run," he said. "I see signs. Countries like Japan are progressive, and they're accepting this technology quicker than Europe."

"It will take a while, but it will calm down," Catlett said. "These technologies are good for us. Why let 7 percent of the market -- Europe -- dictate to us?"

Trisler, which has expanded flat storage capacity to about 300,000 units, does enough business to qualify as a large regional seed company although it has a strong local and state presence.

"People seek us out to grow for them, and we have to turn some away," Catlett said. "A lot of people thought the multinational companies would take over the market and the regionals wouldn't be around at the turn of the century, but we're 65 years old and we're still here."

Hale said regional seed companies are showing a 10 percent to 15 percent growth rate.

"Farmers found out they offer a good product and good service to go with it," he said.

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