Dow Jones reported that "Dan Dye, vice president of the North American
Grain Group for
Cargill Inc. (X.CRG), was cited as telling the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's 76th annual Agricultural Outlook Forum that segregating
genetically modified grain crops from conventional ones is "neither
practical nor economically viable."
Other ag biotech promoters are telling us soon we will be growing plants
containing much needed drugs and chemicals. I assume there will be no
problem segregating these crops, or they will be of no use. Also I assune
there is a way to avoid cross pollination from other varieties of the same
species. They also say this method of obtaining these drugs and chemicals
will be much cheaper than currently conventional production methods. I wish
they'd tell us how to accomplish these things now so we could separate and
protect gmo and non-gmo crops. Maybe they can't because it's part of the
patent, eh?
Cargill's Dan Dye as said, "The genius of the U.S. agricultural system is
that we are very, very good at moving huge volumes of undifferentiated
commodities from producers to consumers at an extremely low cost. There are
a number of customers who seem to believe that we can
operate a niche market with the same level of efficiency and low costs. We
can't. And today, the market for non-genetically enhanced grain is
essentially a niche market."
Does he mean that 50 to 70 percent of production is a niche market? People
like this seem to have invented a new form of logic that can be bent and
stretched to fit any direction they want to take. Of course I have no
doubt that Cargill is mainly interested in the welfare of all of us
consumers.
Don Maroc
Vancouver Island, Canada
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