GMOs: Mandatory labelling would add millions to shopping bill
modified continued this week in Canada. Jenny Hillard,
vice-president of the Consumers Association of Canada (CAC), has
told the House of Commons agriculture committee that her lobby
group is neither for nor against mandatory labelling and that a law
requiring mandatory labels for genetically modified food would
notnecessarily give consumers more market choice. Instead, her
group is keen to push for accuracy in labelling.
The global debate over the labelling issues surrounding genetically modified continued this week in Canada. Jenny Hillard, vice-president of the Consumers Association of Canada (CAC), has told the House of Commons agriculture committee that her lobby group is neither for nor against mandatory labelling and that a law requiring mandatory labels for genetically modified food would notnecessarily give consumers more market choice. Instead, her group is keen to push for accuracy in labelling.
The CAC has been involved in a national effort to develop rules for voluntary labelling.She said members of the consumers' lobby would rather see no labelling thanmisleading or meaningless ones.
Hillard was quoted as saying that "Countries that have tried to implement mandatory labelling schemes are finding that they are serving to keep productsout of the market rather than inform consumers."
She further said that reports that the CAC opposes GM labelling are wrongand that the issue is which type of labelling would give consumers the mostinformation.
"Mandatory labelling would either force identity protection and segregation of all crops or it would cause processors toreformulate to eliminate the GM ingredients. Obviously either of thesealternatives would come at a price that would be borne most heavily by thetwo ends of the market chain, farmers and consumers," she added.
She said much of the opposition to GM food comes from people who opposeglobalisation, industrialised farming and the power of chemical and seedmultinationals.Hillard was also cited as saying that she thinks the warnings aboutpotential costs issued by opponents of GM labelling are exaggerated.
A study by consultant KPMG predicted mandatory labels could cost $700 (€505.4m)-$950million annually because of segregation, identity preservation, testing andlabelling expenses.
KPMG senior manager Geoff Golder was quoted as telling members of the Houseof Commons agriculture committee in late February "that equates to ... anannual cost of between $700 million and almost $1 billion per year whichrepresents almost two per cent of the total expenditure on retail food products in Canada."
He said it could mean up to a 10 per cent increase in retail prices for foodor the equivalent of up to 40 per cent of what canola or corn producers of GMvarieties receive for their product.
Hillard was cited as saying she is not advocating mandatory labels but "thefinal study came out with numbers which ... grossly inflated due to theunrealistic assumptions on which the research was based."
