SAN DIEGO—Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed enthusiasm for biotech seeds here, but told members of the Biotechnology Industry Organization that they should promote the characteristics of genetically modified seeds rather than use the term “genetically modified” if they want the seeds accepted.
“‘Genetically modified’ sounds Frankensteinish—drought resistant sounds like something you’d want,” Clinton said.
The manufacturers of biotech seeds should “be more careful so you don’t raise that red flag immediately,” Clinton told BIO CEO Jim Greenwood on the stage of the annual BIO convention here. The occasion brought out more interesting statements from Clinton than during her speech to the joint Food Marketing Institute-United Fresh Produce meeting in Chicago earlier in June.
Clinton said she had promoted the drought-resistant seeds when she was secretary of state as part of her campaign to shift U.S. food aid programs from providing commodities to helping farmers in Africa and other food-scarce places grow more food themselves.
“A lot of people thought it wasn’t possible” to increase food production in developing countries because the soil was deficient and it was hard to convince smallholder farmers to work together and accept new technology, Clinton said. But she said she persevered, telling the farmers that drought-resistant seeds “won’t hurt them.”
But Clinton acknowledged that gaining acceptance for biotechnology “is painstaking” because proponents have to work both from the top down with presidents and prime ministers and from the bottom up with smallholder farmers.
There have been proposals to link foreign aid to those countries writing laws accepting biotechnology, but Clinton said she believed such efforts would backfire.
Greenwood did not ask Clinton, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, to take a stand on the labeling of foods with ingredients derived from biotech crops, and she did not.
He told Clinton that a label reading “genetically modified” doesn’t give the consumer “any useful information” and then added, “You don’t need to answer that.”
Greenwood also told Clinton that he believes organic farmers and food businesses are funding the efforts to require labeling because they want consumers to choose their products instead.
Clinton did not respond directly to that statement but said “the question of genetically modified food or hybrids has gone on for many, many years” and that there is a “big gap” between the facts and perceptions in that debate.
Greenwood also noted that BIO members produce biofuels, which they believe are a critical part of the answer to the greenhouse gas problem, but that some people oppose biofuels and think the concern about greenhouse gases is a hoax.
Source: www.hagstromreport.com