I think you present an interesting example Claude. I'm not sure how many people remember the irradiation technology anymore. Ginda presents evidence that it is still used, but it seems to me that for all its potential, it is used at a very minimal level. Yet it had such potential for addressing an issue that still plagues us today; safe food.
It wonderful to have a technology that guarantees safe food, or more productive food, or reduced use of pesticides, or more money in the pocket for producers, packagers, processors and purveyors. Now, if we could only get those darn consumers to eat this stuff!!! What's wrong with them?!! Why don't they just accept what we have to say?!! It's safe, darn it!!!! Of course it is. But really, we don't pay for the product in the marketplace. Consumers do. So convincing each other on this list will be fine and dandy. If only we could just buy each others product, make our profits and sleep well at night. Who will convince consumers that GMOs are safe? Government regulators? Local growers? University researchers? News anchors? Leading politicians? I will submit that those most responsible for making the case for the safety of GMOs is none of the above. It must be done by those who stand to profit most from it; the corporate entities which are licensing it and introducing it to the marketplace. Even if all of those other stellar folks I suggested as alternatives made wonderful arguments in favor of these products, consumers want to hear from those who are actually using the technology and introducing the food they are expected to purchase, eat and tell their neighbors about (What a wonderful time they had with this delightful GMO!). Now you may be getting the impression I don't like genetic engineering. You'd be wrong. I think its a fantastic technology with enormous promise. I think I've watched every GMO fruit and vegetable variety that was introduced to the market since the Flavor Savor tomato, back in the early 90's. I was stunned when it wasn't accepted by consumers. It was followed by several other products. A few have survived but those are generally handled in the market without consumers knowing that they are buying and eating a genetically engineered food. Flavor Savor was withdrawn pretty quickly. Why? Consumers didn't accept it. Its been a couple of decades since, and consumers generally are still not buying the argument that GMOs are safe. What is wrong with these people?!! What is wrong is that, in the marketplace, where people are free to make the choices they want to make, based on their best understanding of the choices before them, no one has managed to make the case that this is a better product. Its really not difficult. Until someone convinces them, they will remain,.....unconvinced. Who will step forward and convince these poor people? Don't you think it ought to be the people who have the most to gain from convincing them? I think that would be the people who license the technology. You can try to make the case its safe to your consumers. They'll decide for themselves. But the bottom line is that, whoever is supposed to make that case has done a pretty poor job of it. Do you want to take that problem on? Again, you may not need to. You can get by just fine without Arctic Apple I would guess. There are lots of other choices out there that would probably be better for your customers anyway. Besides, its not really being introduced as a fresh market apple. Still, its being introduced and the marketplace will reckon with it. It always does. Will the consumer be better off? I think that's the question that needs to be answered. Those who license the technology should be up front in answering that question and win the marketplace with their own resources. David R. brings up good points about the potential of this safe technology to address so many pressing issues facing food and agriculture locally and globally. Its just a crying shame that the brand of GMO has been so mishandled by those making most of the money from it. Bill William H. Shoemaker Retired fruit and vegetable horticulturist University of Illinois wshoe...@illinois.edu<mailto:wshoe...@illinois.edu> ________________________________ From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net [apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] on behalf of Claude Jolicoeur [cj...@gmc.ulaval.ca] Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 6:57 PM To: Apple-crop Subject: Re: [apple-crop] arctic apples Le 18:50 2015.02.26, vous avez écrit: I am not particularly excited about the advantages of Arctic Apples, although it will be interesting to see if they eventually play a role in expanding the shelf life of sliced apples. There was a discussion on those apples on another forum recently, and one person had a very interesting argument, which I think makes a lot of sense. It would be that these apples are not intended to be sold direct to consumers... In effect, an apple eater wouldn't care less if the apple he eats will stay white or not. And the apple eater will always prefer a non-GMO apple given choice and knowledge (unless the GMO apple is less expensive obviously...). However, restaurants, cafeterias and other McDonald of this world is a totally different story. For these people it makes a lot of sense to have non-browning apples, as they can prepare plates of sliced apples in the morning, that will still look good in the afternoon. And as we all know, no one at McDo will ever ask if what they eat is GMO or irradiated or anything else... Hence, these GMO apples would actually be engineered for this market. And by the way, as I touched the subject... Those that are old enough might remember there was quire similar arguments many years ago about irradiated fruits and vegetables. No one talks about this any more! Any of you out there knows if irradiation is still done, and to what extent??? Are there irradiated apples out there on the grocery store shelves? Finally, as a cider maker, I am a bit puzzled by these Arctic apples... I assume that if used for cider (I mean hard cider here, but this could also apply to fresh apple juice), they would produce a fully uncolored cider, like true Champagne. While traditional cider may be quite deep in color, mostly if the pomace is left to macerate between milling and pressing. It will be interesting to see if some cider makers will use them to make colorless cider! Claude Jolicoeur Author, The New Cider Maker's Handbook http://www.cjoliprsf.ca/ http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_new_cider_makers_handbook/
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