GM Crop withdrawals increasing

Marcus Williamson / www.gmfoodnews.com/ 2jun01

The US is attempting to spin us into accepting GM contamination because it's already there (which it actually isn't for most foods). This is part of an underhand "public relations" campaign being run by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US food/agribusinesses to get the rest of the world to accept their GM-contaminated wares.

Apart from GM soya and GM maize, which are already in widespread use in US agriculture, other GM crops are being withdrawn or never released in the first place. This is because consumers in the US and US export markets, the EU and Japan, will not accept GM ingredients. Interestingly a number of recent withdrawals have started in Canada, where consumer awareness of GM foods is greater than in the US.

Here's a list of some recent withdrawals :

GM flax - "Triffid" "GM flax seeds off the market" The Leader-Post (Regina) 22 June 2001 http://www.gmfoodnews.com/lp220601.txt  Taken off the market because of "...European fears the variety will contaminate other flax produced in Canada."

GM canola - "Quest" "Monsanto replacing GMO canola seed in Canada" Reuters 25 April 2001 http://www.gmfoodnews.com/re250401.txt  "Monsanto said that the quality tests on canola seed, initially conducted by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool late last week, had detected trace levels of an alternative version of the Roundup Ready trait, a version that has not been registered for canola by Japan, Canada's largest canola seed customer, or the United States, the largest buyer of Canadian canola oil and meal."

GM potato - "NatureMark" / "NewLeaf" "Monsanto pulls plug on NatureMark spuds" Ontario Farmer 6 March 2001 http://www.gmfoodnews.com/of060301.txt  "...She says the varieties were agronomically good but there was concern about consumer reaction, which was heightened when one major processor, McCain, decided it would no longer buy GMO spuds."

GM corn - "StarLink" "Aventis asks EPA to cancel StarLink corn registration" Reuters 18 January 2001 http://www.gmfoodnews.com/re180101.txt  "Aventis SA (NYSE:AVE) requested that U.S. regulators cancel its registration for producing StarLink, after the gene-spliced corn variety was found in numerous food products, setting off hundreds of recalls..."

plus a now-famous earlier product withdrawal in the UK, which led to the cancellation of any further growing or R&D on this GM tomato :

GM tomato - "Vegadura" and "Vegaspeso" ("Flavr Savr") "British ban on GM foods" Independent, UK 2 May 1999 http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/gm.htm  "Sainsbury will withdraw its GM tomato puree - the first genetically modified product to be introduced in Britain - from its shelves by June..."

By exercising choice, and therefore preventing or allowing a market to develop for new GM crops, it is the consumer who ultimately decides whether or not these crops will be grown. Recent evidence shows that consumers are increasingly rejecting GM food, so that food producers are reluctant to plant seeds that no-one wants harvested.