American backlash against GM

By David Norris and George Gordon
(Daily Mail 30 August 1999)

AMERICAN public opinion is swinging against genetically~modiried foods, campaigners said last night.
The dramatic change of mood, fuelled by worldwide concern, is putting increasing pressure on the U.S. companies and politicians who have been the strongest champions of 'Frankenstein Food'.
It could undermine the US offensive to have the crops grown throughout the world - and make billions for the American corporations behind the technology - which has already Included the threat of a trade war with Europe.
GM maize and soya Is being grown of a staggering 60million acres of the US - an area the size of the UK. But farmers have been hit by a series of blows which have left them fearing for their livelihoods.
In the past few weeks baby food giants Heinz and Gerber faced with public hostility to GM ingredients, have both said they will no longer use them. One of the largest pet food producers in the US has followed suit.
The domestic GM backlash has been fuelled by opposition from abroad.
Two of Japan's biggest breweries have just warned that from 2001 they will use only natural corn, while the food division of the giant Honda company is planning to set up a U.S plant and hire farmers to supply it with unadulterated soya.
Mexico, the second largest importer of US corn, has told growers it will no longer use the GM variety for making tortillas.
South Korea said it is considering importing corn from China if the US won't revert to natural seed.
Unadulterated corn is already worth 12p more a bushel and grain store operators are forcing farmers to separate GM and normal crops. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman described the spread of consumer concern as 'like an infectious disease'. He admitted: 'This technology got a little bit ahead of the politics.'
Friends of the-Earth said last night that the turning point in US opinion came with publicity over the way the beautiful Monarch butterfly was under threat from GM crops.
Studies showed that its caterpillars died if GM pollen drifted onto the plants they eat. Ordinary pollen had no such effect.
'The Monarch is seen in America as one or the greatest conservation symbols,' said Tony Jupiter of FoE, who has just returned from a fact finding mission in the US.
Until the Monarch revelation, he said, ordinary families had been told next to nothing about the possible dangers of GM crops.
Now public rears are rapidly approaching those in the UK - where Prince Charles joined the battle with a special Daily Mail article in June - Europe and the Far East.
Open public opposition in Britain has included attacks on GM crop trials and led to big food retailers and manufacturers banning GM products. But GM companies such as Monsanto have ignored international worries, confident that the US would use its commercial might to ensure their technology was adopted throughout the world.
President Clinton has put strong pressure on Tony Blair to keep up government support for GM crops, and earlier this rear the premier accused the media of whipping up 'hysteria'.
GM supporters claim that pest-resistant crops could help prevent global hunger. But in his article for the Mail, Prince Charles dismissed that as 'emotional blackmail'.
One of the few voices of caution in the Government has been Environment Minister Michael Meacher. Recently, it was revealed that America's Central Intelligence Agency has prepared files on him - leading anti-GM campaigners to suggest that the US would stop at nothing to protect the Frankenstein Food business.
Opposition from American voters, particularly with a Presidential election next year, could force politicians to think again.
Peter Scher of the US Trade Representatives Office admitted recently that 'there is a very significant trade threat' while the American Corn Growers' Association has already told members that they should consider planting only conventional seeds next Spring.