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Corn Growers welcome USDA biotech traceability program (Aug. 15, 2002 -- CropChoice news) -- The American Corn Growers Association earlier this week endorsed a
new federal program, 'USDA Process-Verified' to ensure that grains,
oilseeds, rice and seed products are not inadvertently exposed to genetically
modified (GMO) crops.
"As market reports confirm that the U.S. has lost more corn export sales
because of GMO corn varieties -- in this case China is exporting 107,000 metric
tons of non-GMO corn to South Korea in direct competition with U.S. exports
-- the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) announcement last week that it
is proposing its new program titled 'USDA Process-Verified', is welcome news
and a step in the right direction," said Dan McGuire, Director of the Farmer
Choice - Customer First program of the American Corn Growers Association
(ACGA). "We encourage Secretary Veneman and USDA to move closer to the
customer-oriented policies that ACGA has promoted for years regarding GMOs.
Larry Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of the ACGA stated, "Current
drought-driven, higher corn prices should not divert the attention of American corn
growers from the need to address the quality and consumer-driven concerns of
both foreign buyers and our domestic market. It only takes a year of normal
crops to drive prices right back down, so it is critical that we don't allow
foreign export competitors to make further inroads into our traditional
markets. We need USDA working with us to export exactly the variety, grade and
class of corn that world buyers want and this new program may well help. This
new traceability program is a positive trade tool for U.S. farmers."
"Last year's U.S. corn exports ended up one million metric tons below the
prior year even with the low corn prices that farmers were receiving and
prices have been low throughout the current year, yet exports are likely to be
lower again, confirming that ACGA has been right on target with our GMO market
concerns," said Mitchell.
"It is now essential that any new USDA 'traceability' program and the
subsequent rules acknowledge the fact that conventional corn varieties represent
the vast majority of the U.S. corn crop. Demand for conventional non-GMO
varieties should not be described as a 'niche' market. Buyers have expected they
were buying conventional corn varieties. The 'niche' corn market should be
the market that is requesting GMO corn and I don't know of one buyer that is,
so it might be the smallest 'niche' market ever, " concluded McGuire. "Since
neither the market nor the marketing system asked for GMOs, the burden of
segregation, identity-preservation, inadvertent contamination and the related
liability and other costs should be assigned to the biotech companies that
introduced and sell GMO varieties. The new USDA program should be designed with
this in mind." | |
