NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – To win the hearts, minds and consumer dollars of Canadians in the debate over genetically modified foods, Ray Mowling’s strategy is to sell the GM argument to “opinion leaders” whom Canadians trust.
They then can play a role in convincing average Canadians.
“Our efforts need to be complementary to the activities of those with greater public credibility on this issue,” the executive director of the recently formed Council for Biotechnology Information told industry leaders at a fall meeting.
He conceded that credibility does not rest with companies that research and produce genetically modified varieties and products.
Read Also
European wheat production makes big recovery
EU crop prospects are vastly improved, which could mean fewer canola and durum imports from Canada.
“Industry information is always suspect,” agreed Crop Protection Institute of Canada president Lorne Hepworth during the institute’s annual meeting.
Mowling is directing a multimillion dollar campaign to try to influence opinion leaders to understand and then say a good word for GM technology.
“We’re not into mounting a specific message campaign,” he said in an interview outside the meeting. “We are providing information which enables other people to understand and then give the message.”
Specifically, Mowling said the target group is dietitians, university personnel, consumer leaders, government, media, scientists and others interested in learning all sides of an issue and forming an opinion.
The industry hopes that if they decide on the side of the safety and usefulness of GM food, they will say so.
“From our opinion tracking, they are still looking for information,” he said. “They think for now that it’s OK but they want to know more and we have to avoid anything that will weaken their confidence.”
Mowling’s council and the industry expect to have $7 million or more to spend on the information campaign, including advertisements.
“I think people want to trust their food and they do,” he said. “But it is clear they want the assurances from someone other than those who produce it.”
As a former president of Monsanto Canada Inc., Mowling has personal experience with the power of public opinion to stifle a product launch.
He was president of the company in the late 1990s when it tried to win Canadian government approval to introduce a dairy growth hormone. After years of political protest, advocacy lobbying and allegations of too close a relationship between industry and government, the federal government found a way to refuse to license bovine somatotropin.
Mowling had been the most visible corporate advocate of the product and shortly after Health Canada announced its decision not to license, he parted company with Monsanto.
He said that the dairy hormone debate has no residual effect on the GM debate.
Still, industry leaders heard during the conference from several high-profile speakers that the battle for public opinion will not necessarily be won by trotting out scientific facts.
CBC journalist Rex Murphy told them if the debate was over safety and science, it would be easy to resolve.
“If it’s just science at question, then submit the question to independent testing,” he said. “It should not be a debate.” Is the science good and the safety ensured, or not?
However, he said the debate is about various ideological visions of the role of technology in society and the perceived power and secrecy of corporations.
