OTTAWA (Staff) – The public is deeply suspicious of any move to introduce the growth hormone bovine somatotropin into Canada’s dairy herd, says public opinion pollster Angus Reid.
A recent survey by the Winnipeg-based polling firm, discussed at a Commons committee meeting last week, reported that three-quarters of Canadians are concerned about the prospect of farmers using BST to increase milk production.
On the question of whether they would pay 10 percent more for non-BST milk, 46 percent said definitely and an additional 28 percent said probably.
“I was really taken aback by that,” said Angus Reid senior vice-president Gary Bennewies. “People are usually very price conscious. This tells me there is a lot of unease about introduction of new technology.”
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The issue of public acceptance is a key one in the debate over whether BST should be approved.
Industry worried about drop in demand
The health department says it will decide on scientific and health grounds but dairy industry representatives say a decline in consumption would be devastating.
To monitor American reaction after BST was introduced last year, an Agriculture Canada-led task force on BST issued a contract to University of Guelph professor George Brinkman.
The task force reported last month that U.S. dairy product consumption actually increased slightly during the past year.
“I do believe it (consumer reaction) would be similar (in Canada) to the U.S.,” Brinkman told MPs when members of the BST task force appeared before the Commons agriculture committee.
Consumers Association of Canada president Ruth Jackson, also a member of the task force, did not contradict him, although she said the Angus Reid poll indicates growing consumer unease. “It indicates more concern than I would have expected.”
In a later interview, she said she is suspicious of the Angus Reid results because they seem at variance with earlier polls.
She attributed consumer unease to a lack of information and education.
But for all the attempts by BST boosters to downplay the significance of the Canadian poll and to play up the significance of the American market expansion, a spokesperson for Canadian dairy processors remained adamant that BST should not be approved.
The American market expansion happened after a year of concentrated dairy product promotion in the U.S., said Kempton Matte of the National Dairy Council of Canada. “I don’t think it’s a good measure.”
He said the Angus Reid poll showed 75 percent of Canadian consumers with a negative attitude to BST.
“This is a huge threat to our industry,” he said. “We’re not satisfied. There is no comfort in those numbers.”
