MONT TREMBLANT, Que. – When Canadian food processing giant McCain Foods announced in 1999 that it would no longer buy genetically modified potatoes, it was reacting to consumer fear rather than fear of GM products, says a senior McCain executive.
Mark McCauley, vice-president of marketing for McCain Foods, told a conference on agriculture Nov. 30 that his Maritimes-based company embraces biotechnology.
“We believe in the science of it,” he said. “Biotechnology has to be here to stay to feed the world.”
Yet McCain, the world’s largest producer of french fries, decided to refuse to buy genetically modified potatoes. The corporate decision sent shock waves through the food industry.
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McCauley told the conference, organized by the Canadian Farm Business Management Council, that the safety of GM food is not in doubt.
But consumer acceptance is.
The ban on GM purchases “has been a response to consumer, market demand,” he said.
When three customers buy 45 percent of french fries sold in the world and they are nervous about consumer reaction to GM, “we have to listen.”
McCauley told one potato producer at the conference there is no way to predict when the Canadian market for GM potato varieties will open again.
He noted that anti-GM activists continue to target supermarkets and the issue of labelling remains a dangerous unknown that could produce “a big backlash against the agri-food sector” if not handled properly.
Later, Laval University animal sciences professor Franois Pothier said the public is even more skeptical of the work he is doing in animal genetics, even though the goal is to create animals capable of manufacturing medicines or producing organs suitable for transplanting into humans.
“The public does not understand and they don’t want this to work,” he said.
Pothier said members of the public feel that science is moving too quickly, changing the natural order of plants and animals before people have had time to consider the ethics and morality of scientific capabilities.
“People are overwhelmed.They can’t keep up with us. They no longer see themselves in what we are doing.”
Still, former federal deputy agriculture minister and food industry executive Gaétan Lussier said the benefits of biotechnology will outweigh the risks and doubts.
“Many hopes have been raised by biotechnology because these new approaches could help us more effectively fight some of the greatest blights in humanity such as malnutrition, disease and pollution,” he told the conference.
“These discoveries will pose ethical challenges. In the long run, however, they will offer a positive effect on humanity and on those companies which knew enough to capitalize on newly created market niches.”
