RE: [pf] NZ's Royal Commission on Gene Modif.; last two days' PA coverage.

by David A

06 December 2000 23:10 UTC

David MacClement wrote:
> From: Jonathan Hill <jonathan.hill@parliament.govt.nz>
> FARMER TELLS INQUIRY OF HEAVY-HANDED TACTICS
> 
> ``Consumer resistance in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, 
> Mexico, South Africa, Brazil and the growing resistance in the 
> United States makes it unlikely that many market opportunities 
> will be available for GM crops.

I'm not sure this is the case for the US. I can't share any details 
right now, but a producer I know who is making a film on biotechnology 
has talk to a US statistician who has found that US consumers 
overwhelmingly do not object to GM foods as long as they're labeled as 
such. This is pre-Starlink, and pre-the current European BSE scare, and 
I don't know if how these (the former, especially -- I'm not sure the 
average American has heard of Europe's current BSE problems) affects the 
results. Labeling, it seems, is the key item -- people don't seem to 
mind as long as they don't think that someone is trying to put something 
past them.

I'd be curious to see how US corn usage for food (if anyone even tracks 
this sort of thing) changes over the next year, given Starlink. Or if 
organic food sales increase above-and-beyond what I assume is already an 
increasing trend.

David