Labelling genetically modified salmon might be a way for everybody to make more money from it, says an agricultural economist.
“If you’re putting the same salmon in the same (grocery case), you won’t be able to increase the equity at retail as much as you can with a label,” said Sylvain Charlebois, dean of management and food distribution at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
“It’s really a matter of providing consumers with an opportunity to make an educated decision.”
Charlebois said many consumers won’t care much about whether salmon is GM and will focus on price and quality, like they do today.
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Others will want non-GM salmon, and might be willing to pay extra for non-GM or organic salmon.
Without labels, there’s no chance to divide the market and charge premiums for certain types of salmon, Charlebois said.
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have approved grocery store sales of GM salmon, mirroring a similar U.S. move a few months ago.
The new salmon does not need to be labelled as different.
It was created by combining genes from Chinook and Atlantic salmon and including material from a species of eel. The result is a much faster-growing salmon that gets to market in about half the time as regular farm-raised salmon.
Anti-GM activists have attacked the altered fish and demanded it be labelled as GM. Some grocery chains have said they won’t carry it.
Charlebois agreed it should be labelled but not because he thinks there is anything wrong with the meat from GM fish.
He thinks most consumers don’t care whether food contains GM elements. Most processed food now does.
However, consumers who value non-GM food might be willing to pay more for non-GM salmon, so why not label GM salmon?
“The more you recognize the heterogeneous nature of markets, the better off you are because you will be able to capitalize on niche markets,” said Charlebois.
“In the food business today, that’s what you need to do. You can’t consider all consumers to be the same. They don’t want the same. They want different things.”
Charlebois thinks the issue might show the way forward for many food products and for the evolution of GM livestock.
ed.white@producer.com
