GMO labels
Bill Liebhardt (wcliebhardt@ucdavis.edu)
Tue, 14 Dec 1999 14:08:48 -0800
When we buy any product we are not buying the product but the perceived
benefit. Think about anything you buy or would like to buy and it is the
benefits you really are thinking about and thats the reason you make the
purchase. Now ask the question-why doesn't the bio tech industry want
labeling? I would suggest that the reason is that most of the products
they have brought on line have no perceived benefits and may actually have
negative factors associated with them to the ultimate consumer. So when
that is the case they fight labeling because they do not want an informed
public being able to make that choice. Let's look at bovine growth hormone
sold by Monsanto. They did everything possible with FDA help to keep
people in the dark(The mushroom complex) They fed us a lot of horse manure
and kept us in the dark as much as possible. There is absolutely no
benefit to drinking milk with the artificial bovine growth hormone. In
fact there are reasons why you would not want to drink it with respect to
social and environmental issues. From a health standpoint there are
potential risks. Harvard based studies has shown that levels of IGF-1
influences the risk of getting breast and prostrate cancer. Levels of
IGF-1 in normal milk are 1-9 nanograms/ml and with rbgh is 1-13. Women
with high levels of IGF-1 are 7X more likely to get breast cancer than
women with low levels and in men it is 4X more prostrate cancer. So you
can see why Monsanto does not want an informed public on this issue.
When bio tech products benefit the consumer it will be easy to separate the
products, foods or commodities. For example suppose that some food could
eliminate Alzheimer and could do it at a very reasonable price. I do not
think we would hear that it is too expensive to segregate.
Suppose for example that Pioneer was able to genetically engineer corn that
had the same effect as Viagra on men. Suppose also that there were no
other problems, no side effects and no environmental problems. Suppose
also that 25 g of corn flakes provided the effect and it cost only $2.00.
Do you think Pioneer would say it is too expensive to separate? The obvious
answer is a big NO. And why would that be the case? Because it would be
in their interest to segregate and it would be beneficial and profitable to
them. I know this maybe an outrageous example but it gets the point(no
pun intended) across.
Sleep on that one.
Bill Liebhardt
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