August 17, 2000
U.S. Food Companies See Little Biotech Backlash
By REUTERS
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Eliminating Gene-Modified Food a Daunting Task
CHICAGO -- The U.S. grain industry plans to improve efforts to separate out genetically modified grains as it handles a record harvest this year, but few in the business are promising total success.
"Less than 10 percent of the industry is engaged in segregation and we don't anticipate a strong need for it this fall," Thomas O'Connor, National Grain and Feed Association director of technical services, said. "The market demand for non-GMO crops is just not that strong."
The United States is the world's largest grain exporter and genetically modified organisms have already made huge inroads in its farming and food system. The U.S. government has certified the crops, which mostly contain genes added to resist pests or herbicides, as safe for consumption and the environment.
But in the last year a storm of protests against GMOs by European consumer groups led many countries to propose or plan that modified crops be certified, labeled and separated. U.S. corn exports to the European Union, for example, have dropped 3-1/2 percent since the EU declared a moratorium on importing GM varieties not yet approved by the EU.
Other major importers such as Japan and South Korea plan to label such grains, but the U.S. grain trade appears sanguine.
A faith that science-based approvals of GMOs as safe for foods and the environment will win world consumers, a lack of deal-breaking protests from foreign buyers, and the innate problems with sorting almost 15 billion bushels of grain appear to be controlling the practical, real-world usage of GMOs.
U.S. Handlers Make an Effort
A survey of 1,200 U.S. grain elevators this spring conducted by Farm Progress, a publisher of regional U.S. farm magazines, showed that 24 percent planned to segregate corn and 20 percent planned to segregate soybeans this autumn. How they will do this come harvest time seems to vary from one location to the next.
"We're requesting farmers to sign an affidavit that the seed they bought and planted is what they're delivering," said grain merchandiser Scott Docherty with Top Flight Grain in Bement, Illinois. The cooperative will also spot check trucks as they deliver at harvest and samples drawn will be run through an extensive lab test off-site to check the DNA makeup.
Major grain firms like Cargill and Central Soya say they are accepting both GM and non-GM crops but have designated specific elevators and processing plants as non-GM delivery points in an effort to keep crops segregated. What makes the situation more interesting this year is a likelihood of record-breaking crops.
More than half the soybeans and a quarter of the corn will be GM varieties, based on surveys of farmers conducted in March by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Most of that will be turned into livestock feed for U.S. cattle, swine, and poultry, which is one reason grain officials believe the issue of grain segregation involves only a small percentage of U.S. crops.
According to the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service, demand for non-GM soybeans, for example, accounts for only 2 percent of U.S. soybean production.
"There is zero to nonexistent concern this year," American Soybean Association technical issue director Kim Hill told the Soybean Digest magazine this month in describing U.S. soybean farmer concern about sales. "Many of the elevators that tried to separate them last year say they regret that decision. It was a huge expenditure for nothing."
American Seed Trade Association Web site www.amseed.com publishes contacts for hundreds of U.S. grain elevators that accept GMO grains, easing farmer concerns. The grain trade also faces other hurdles in segregating grain since traditionally various high and low grades of any one grain are blended at elevators to achieve acceptable quality.
But economics is slowly changing those customs. Demand from processors such as snack food makers for specialty grain such as white corn has led to more contracting requiring strict segregation and identity preservation of grain. The same is true for high-oil corn or tofu-destined soybeans.
"We have in the past and expect in the new crop year to pay premiums for identity preservation, assured non-GMO soybeans," said Jeff Fritz, director of corporate development at Central Soya, a large U.S. soybean processor.
If customers are willing to pay for the additional time it takes to grow, handle and process IP products, there are U.S. companies willing to meet those demands -- passing along additional premiums to farmers, said Linda Thrane, a spokeswoman for Cargill Inc., the largest U.S. grain exporter.
-- REUTERS
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HICAGO -- There is an uproar in Europe over genetically modified ingredients in food, but American consumers have voiced only mild concern and food companies say they are under little pressure to change.
As an expected record harvest of corn and soybeans gets under way in the United States, with some 50 million acres planted with GM seeds, food makers say consumers are not alarmed even as advocacy groups step up the pressure.
"What we're seeing and hearing from consumers indicates that consumers in the United States are confident in the safety of the products that are on the market," said Kathy Knuth, spokeswoman for the Kraft Foods unit of Philip Morris.
But at least one recent study suggests Americans are becoming more skeptical. The International Food Information Council study showed 59 percent surveyed in May thought biotechnology would benefit them, versus 78 percent in 1997.
"It's very clear that consumer confidence is slipping. It's also clear that the issue is very volatile. People have not made up their minds on it," said Jean Halloran, director of the Consumer Policy Institute at the Consumers Union.
Others say American consumers, who spent $1 trillion last year at supermarkets and restaurants, appear to be confident of government claims that GM foods are safe.
In Europe, where consumers have faced major health scares such as "mad cow" disease, the public lacks faith in government to ensure food safety and is more skeptical about bioscience itself, said Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California at Davis.
GM Food Pervasive in U.S.
Americans have a basic trust in scientific progress, Bruhn said. "Unless there is a major (food safety) disaster, I believe the tide will swing back toward acceptance."
Bioengineered crops can better resist destructive pests and diseases, reducing pesticide and herbicide applications in the field and producing enhanced yields for farmers.
As much as 70 percent of the foods on U.S. grocery store shelves may contain ingredients derived from GM corn, soybeans, cottonseed, potatoes and other crops, in everything from cereal to salad dressing to potato chips.
Consumer and environmental groups, the most vocal of which is Greenpeace, say research has not concluded the crops are without health risks and urge mandatory safety reviews and labeling of foods that contain such ingredients.
Food companies, for their part, stress they back the conclusions of U.S. government agencies that have deemed genetically engineered crops safe, and many insist they have no plans to remove the ingredients from their products.
"Our policy is not going to change," said Jerry Buckley, spokesman for Campbell Soup Co., which last month became the first company targeted by a coalition of activist groups taking aim at major U.S. food concerns.
Fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of calls to Campbell's consumer hotlines have dealt with the biotech issue, Buckley said, echoing comments from several U.S. food companies.
"We have not seen great surges in calls to our consumer hotline at all," said Debbie Foster, director of corporate communications for H.J. Heinz Co.
Some Food Markets Hedge Their Bets
Nonetheless, Heinz decided last August to eliminate GM ingredients from its baby food products to reassure parents and it set up a certification and testing program for the ingredients it buys, Foster said.
Gerber Products Co., the biggest U.S. baby food maker, avoids GM ingredients and uses dedicated growers so it can monitor the crops, spokesman Sheldon Jones said.
"Even though we felt that science shows genetically enhanced ingredients are safe, we decided it would be best for our consumers, the parents, to protect them from having concerns, and to eliminate us from the debate."
Gerber's corporate parent, Novartis AG of Switzerland, a major provider of seeds for growing genetically modified crops, last week confirmed it has made its own food products GM-free, a move that has not gone unnoticed by U.S. farm groups.
The Frito-Lay snack division of PepsiCo Inc. this year also asked its contracted growers not to plant gene-altered corn and potatoes.
"Some companies made a decision for marketing reasons to get out of biotech," said Gene Grabowski, spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America trade group.
Food makers appear unlikely to make major policy changes unless consumer sentiment shifts dramatically.
"Food companies are not really pro-biotech or anti-biotech," Grabowski said. "If consumers decide for whatever reason that they don't want any biotech, companies will not provide biotech."
But companies say it is virtually impossible to guarantee GM-free foods in the United States, especially those derived from corn and soybeans, because crops can cross-pollinate or become mingled along the supply chain.
"There really is not a system in place for the total U.S. supply chain right now that could guarantee that anyone that says they are making no genetically modified food products can in fact guarantee that," said Mark Dollins, director of corporate communications for Quaker Oats Co.
The companies say they can avoid using biotech crops in Europe because non-GMO supplies are easier to source there. |
