A soybean crop intended for human consumption was contaminated by a GM pharmaceutical maize crop being grown by the biotech company, ProdiGene, to produce an experimental vaccine against a pig disease (Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus or TGEV).  On November 12^th 2002 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it had quarantined half a million bushels of soybeans (worth over 42.7 million dollars) at a grain elevator in Nebraska after it was discovered that stalks from a GM Pharm maize crop were mixed with soybeans meant for human consumption. The GM Pharm maize had been grown in a field one year but had appeared again the following year as a ‘volunteer’ crop, which was then harvested with the new season’s soybean food crop. The USDA ordered the soya to be destroyed and fined the biotech company, ProdiGene $2.8 million dollars.

This crisis forced the US government to tighten regulations on growing GM Pharm and industrial crops.  They implemented four new safety measures: 1) bigger separation distances between GM crops and conventional crops, 2) special training for farmers on how to manage GM crops, 3) machinery and equipment dedicated solely for use in the planting and harvesting and storing of GM crops, and, 4) more frequent government inspections. The crisis also prompted scientists who were not convinced the new government measures would prevent further crises to call for GM Pharm and industrial crops to be grown indoors, in non-food or feed crops, or in industrial plant cell cultures.