NINETTE, Man. – A puzzled expression spreads across Shane Box’s face when he is asked about genetically modified food.
His family owns a grocery story here and while customers pay attention to quality and price, genetic engineering in foods has not been an issue.
“I wouldn’t have a clue,” Box said when asked what products might contain genetically modified material.
Although the debate about GMOs has not registered on consumers’ minds in this farming area, it’s starting to send shock waves through other parts of the country.
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There’s a growing distrust of GM foods, especially among consumers in Eastern Canada, according to Jenny Hillard of Winnipeg, vice-president of the Consumers Association of Canada.
“Some of their concerns are very valid,” she said. “Some of them are based on scare tactics and inaccurate information.”
Hillard said industry and government have failed to give consumers the information needed to draw informed conclusions about the genetic engineering of crops.
That leaves the door open for environmental groups such as Greenpeace to foster doubts about what some critics have dubbed mutant crops and “frankenfoods.”
“They’re really turning up the heat,” Hillard said. “I think one of the reasons it’s not heating up as much on the Prairies is that although people in the city have no clue where their food comes from, they (prairie consumers) are that little bit closer to the agricultural community.”
Hillard said an Angus Reid survey done last December (not the previously mentioned Monsanto poll) is evidence of the growing concern in Eastern Canada.
Hillard said the poll in Ontario and Quebec found that 19 percent of the people surveyed considered biotechnology one of the their top three concerns about food.
The polling company would not confirm the results of the survey.
Peter Phillips, a University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist, agrees industry and government must do more if they want to sway public opinion in favor of genetically modified foods.
Federal regulators who say those foods are safe have been almost invisible during the debate, Phillips said “Perception to a great degree is reality in this debate. If people perceive there’s a problem, they’ll believe it.”
Laurie Curry is vice-president of public policy and scientific affairs for the Food and Consumer Products Manufacturers of Canada, a national trade association representing more than 170 companies.
“I can’t tell you how many times people talk to me about fish genes in tomatoes,” she said.
There are no fish genes in Canada’s tomatoes. Nor are transgenic tomato varieties sold in Canadian stores, said Wilf Keller, director of the Research Council of Canada’s Plant Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon.
Curry said her association has confidence in Canada’s food regulatory system but the effort to win consumer acceptance of biotech foods should have started long ago.
“Looking back now, we’re kind of kicking ourselves,” she said. “We have the added challenge of not just communicating new technology, but where food comes from.”
Curry’s association, along with the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, backs the effort in Canada to establish voluntary labeling standards for foods derived from biotechnology.
Meanwhile, Hillard said she will continue eating modified foods.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to feed them to children, either,” she said.
“But then, I’ve never been prepared to pay double price for organic food or anything like that. I think we’ve got wonderfully good, safe food and I’m not prepared to pay a premium for some pathetic little niche market that is making claims that it probably can’t substantiate.”
