Would you willingly pay, say, an extra 25 cents a gallon to learn that
18 percent came from Kuwait, 12 percent from Iraq, 9 percent from Norway,
and so on and so forth, with a detailed printout of all the various
hydrocarbons? Most people wouldn't pay, because they don't care.
Will the vast majority of Americans willing pay extra for GM labeling? I
don't know.
If most people want GM-free foods, and are willing to pay presumably
higher prices at GM-free supermarkets, then those stores will prosper.
Otherwise, they are likely to remain niche vendors.
I'd hate to mandate that everyone pay more for labeling that, at
present, concerns only a minority.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wilson, Dale [SMTP:WILSONDO@phibred.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 13, 1999 10:16 AM
> To: 'Hook Family'
> Cc: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu
> Subject: RE: GMO labeling
>
> Beth,
>
> > I was wondering this. Why can't products say they are free
> > of GM. And of course I mean they have actually tested and
> > really are free. Or are they "forbidden" to be truthful.
>
> Food processors are very frightened of labeling. First, it is expensive
> to
> segregate commodities. Second, it is not clear what GMO-free really
> means.
> For example, if soybean oil is made from transgenic soybeans, but contains
> no DNA or protein, is it GMO-free? What if a conventional load of corn
> contains a few kernels of GMO corn? What if you find a RR soybean in your
> bag of conventional rice? Also, does GMO include things developed with
> molecular techniques that are not transgenic (markers, mutations,
> duplications)?
>
> Finally, public opinion seems to be highly unstable right now. Vastly
> different responses to surveys occur depending on how questions are
> worded.
> So the value of GMO-free commodities is poorly defined in the market. But
> this will change.
>
> Probably, some entrepreneurs will begin marketing "GMO-free" foods at a
> premium price, taking labeling into their own hands as it were. To be
> reliably free (that is, totally free) of GMO might be pretty expensive.
> If
> labeling is mandated by the government, most everything on the shelf will
> probably say: "May contain transgenic material."
>
> Dale
>
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