Reuters | September 21, 1999 | Eric Onstad
ROTTERDAM - Rudolf Hoeffelman, chairman of the Royal Dutch Grain and Feed Trade Association, was cited as saying that the U.S. government should actively support industry efforts to segregate genetically modified (GM) crops to diffuse consumer opposition in Europe, and that once consumers face sharply higher prices for foods without GM inputs, most are likely to opt for foods not specified as GM free.
Hoeffelman, former president of the Benelux division of U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill, added that he recently told U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Cynthia Schneider that current U.S. policy on GM foods was not working, adding, "Basically what I said was winning your way is almost impossible and puts trade and industry in a very difficult position."
Officials in the United States, where GM crops are widely accepted, argue that research supports the safety of GM crops and any moves by Europeans to put the brakes on such foods amount to unfair trade practices.
But Europeans' confidence in food safety has been severely undermined following the mad cow crisis in Britain and the dioxin affair in Belgium this year.
Hoeffelman was further quoted as saying, "You can't ram it down peoples' throats. If people don't want it, if they say we want it segregated, let the consumer make the choice, that's a very reasonable argument."
He also said that favouring segregation of GM crops does not translate into opposition to GM crops, but is a practical reaction to the stalemate between the United States and Europe, and that the grain and shipping industries would struggle on their own to create viable systems to separate GM and non-GM crops and might not gain the confidence of consumers without official cooperation, adding, "So the best thing would be if the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), directed by Washington, would cooperate with this."
