And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Beth von Gunten) Subject: US Ag Secretary Glickman on the Changing Prospects of Biotechnology Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist April 30, 1999 -- AgAnswers, Purdue University Reacting yesterday (4/29) to news that two grocery store chains in the United Kingdom vowed to remove all foods containing genetically modified food products, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman told an audience at Purdue: "My belief is that farmers and consumers will come to see the benefits of these products. But," he added, "we can't force these new genetically engineered foods down consumers' throats." Glickman says scientists and the agribusiness industry must not dismiss the skepticism, but instead focus on consumer education, public information and on maintaining sound scientific practices. Consumer skepticism throughout Europe about the safety of foods processed from genetically engineered grains poses potentially huge challenges for American farmers who have been planting biotech seeds, such as Bt corn and Roundup Ready corn and soybeans. In 1998, almost one-third of U.S. soybean acres and about a quarter of U.S. corn acres were planted in genetically engineered seed. Those percentages were in the single digits one year earlier. However, Europeans are leery of newfangled food products, especially after the attention to "mad cow" disease two years ago, says Ohio State agricultural economist Tom Sporleder. There's an outcry about food safety in Europe, even though "mad cow" disease didn't involve genetic engineering, Sporleder says. "'Mad cow' disease scared the hell out of the Europeans," he says. "I think they're saying to the scientific community, 'Prove beyond a doubt biotech is safe.' In the long-run, I really believe the world will accept food products made from genetically altered grains." Some American farmersand food processorsmay be in a bind if the European Union (EU) succeeds in pressing for a major round of talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November, Sporleder says. The EU wants processed foods to be labeled if they are made from genetically engineered crops, Sporleder says. In addition, the EU is concerned about pollen "drift" from fields planted with genetically modified crops to fields of conventional crops. The current U.S. position is that genetically altered food need not be labeled. The labeling issue is significant because processed foods are a major segment of trade in the globalized economy, Sporleder says. American processors could comply, but not without considerable expense that would raise food costs.<<end excerpt Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
