From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri Jun 29 2001 - 17:22:29 MDT
On Fri, 29 Jun 2001, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> However, I think that industry would balk even at this. I believe that a
> key motivating factor of industry is to hide their GMO products. The
> propaganda about "Frankenfoods" is so great, that there is a fear of
> backlash and boycott. [...snip...] However,
> because of this approach, I predict that they will be against any way to
> track down information on GMO foods. The industry wants to suppress
> information that might hurt sales.
I'm not so sure Harvey, as the NY Times article pointed out
*a lot* of the GM food, esp corn & soybeans, probably goes
into feeding cows and chickens. They don't yet have a vote.
So GM crops will always have a strong market until the Greens
climb in bed with the animal rights activists (as I've mentioned
before). But reversing this situation will be very hard due to cost
efficiency issues. Unlike grain products in taco shells, I
doubt you can tell a cow or chicken has been fed GM foods.
So the question is what fraction of GM crops are actually going
to the consumer. I'd just guess it is probably less than 1/3
and then you have to consider that most consumers have been
eating this stuff for several years and haven't been poisoned
by it yet so they aren't going to care.
Given the small "swing" market and the headaches it would
cause the average consumer to "check" everything at the
food contents display station -- I don't think the lost sales
would be a significant loss relative to the publicity benefits
of being able to claim -- *see* we tell you *exactly* what is
in our products.
You have to consider the BIO industry is made of primarily
of companies lead by scientists. They will listen to "reasonable"
arguments. The companies like Pepsi or MacDonalds may cave
in the face of consumer activism but I think the BIO industry
as a whole could be convinced that this is in their best
interest. Once you got the system started, the shadow of
doubt would be cast on those who didn't participate.
For the hard-core people who abhore all GMO, there would be
specific stores that spring up (such as Puget-Sound Consumer
Cooperative (or something to that effect)) in various regions
that only deal in certified non-GM products -- removing the
investigational burden from the consumer (while charging
them more for that service).
Robert
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