MCCAIN DECISION ON POTATOES RESPONSE TO WIDESPREAD MISTRUST
Saskatoon StarPhoenix | December 2, 1999 | Murray Lyons
John Oliver, a past-president of Dow Elanco Canada who now owns his own consulting company, was cited as telling an industry luncheon in Saskatoon Wednesday that the decision by McCain Foods to stop accepting genetically altered potatoes at its french fry processing plants is a sign of the rough water ahead for agricultural biotechnology, and is what happens when the scientific and business proponents of agricultural biotechnology fail to win the hearts of consumers.
Oliver said that McCain, which produces about a third of the world's french fries, is making a strategic decision to not lose market share while people opposed to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hold sway in the media, adding, "Unfortunately the debate has now moved past science. It's moved past labelling, It's in the supermarket where we're into a market share business. It's amazing how much one per cent market share change will do to drive an industry." What is important is that McCain has said it will return to GMO potatoes if consumer acceptance rises, he added.
In answer to a question about how the industry can counter media opponents of GMOs such as David Suzuki, Oliver was quoted as responding, "I see David Suzuki as any other Las Vegas lounge act. He's an entertainer. He's been able to get up there, masquerade under a degree and he doesn't do it for free. Try to hire David Suzuki to come out and do this speech at lunch hour. I don't think you'd get him for $10,000."
Oliver said it's interesting what choices consumers will make if they have facts about GMO foods.
A few years ago, he said Sobey's in Atlantic Canada put up displays that outlined potato production techniques which pitted potatoes genetically changed to resist the Colorado potato beetle versus the five different sprayings of a toxic insecticide used to combat the beetles in conventional methods.
"The genetically altered potatoes were outselling the traditionally grown ones by about two to one," he said.
The debate about GMOs, he said, is really only happening in the countries accounting for about one per cent of the world's six billion people who are adequately fed and can afford to debate it.
