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Michael McCain
- Maple Leaf Foods |
| Farm-Scape for May 5, 2000 (Episode 423)
The head of Maple Leaf Foods is calling for a proactive industry approach to educating consumers about issues related to genetically modified organisms in food.
Maple Leaf President and CEO Michael McCain says the GMO issue is an emotional one which stakeholders must be prepared to face head on.
He points to an Angus Reid Poll conducted in September 1998 then repeated in September 1999 which shows the attitudes of Canadians shifted from 49 per cent positive to only 37 per cent positive on the issue of biotechnology.
Clip-Michael McCain-Maple Leaf Foods
Very much the Canadian attitude replicated the United States in 1998 but very clearly has moved towards the European model in 1999 with a more negative perspective on GMO than positive.
When you drill down on that, more importantly, in 1998 Canadians saw the GMO issue as basically a food science and technology issue but in 1999 their attitude shifted and they saw it as a food safety and public health issue.
They not only saw it negatively but they saw the issue itself very differently so that's very much trending in Canadian attitudes from US alignment and the US position to more of a European perspective on the GMO issue and we think that the industry needs to be very very very proactive in providing clarity to consumers to restore their confidence in the safety of the Canadian food supply.
McCain says Maple Leaf has made leading edge investment into technologies that will add value within the pork chain including research into genetic selection techniques for meat quality, research into improving feed nutrition and digestibility and research into neutraceuticals, using nutrients as a means to improve herd health.
For Farm-Scape...I'm Bruce Cochrane. |
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| Keywords: nutrition, food safety |
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© Wonderworks Canada
2000 |
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