Poll Shows Canadians Opposed to GE Foods & Crops

Majority uneasy about GM food
Canadians cool to altered crops

Poll shows most favour labelling

PETER CALAMAI
SCIENCE REPORTER

OTTAWA - Canadians with three out of five saying such foods provide more risks
than benefits, according to a recently released federal government
poll.

This concern translated into a majority (53 per cent) of adult
Canadians telling pollsters working for Ottawa that they were
uncomfortable buying foods with genetically modified ingredients. Only
31 per cent gave the same answer in the first such survey five years
ago.

Three in four Canadians indicated support for mandatory labelling if
foodstuffs contain any GM ingredients, a move the federal government
has consistently rejected as unnecessary.

The food industry estimates that between two-thirds and three-quarters
of processed foods already contain GM ingredients or come from plants
than have been genetically engineered.

"Canadians are not yet at a point where they feel comfortable with
genetically modified food. In fact, comfort levels have continually
declined," said a summary of the results prepared for senior federal
officials.

Carried out in March by Decima Research, the telephone survey also
found that the proportion of Canadians "very willing" to hand over
their genetic information to researchers had plunged to 37 per cent
from 56 per cent a year previous.

This growing concern over privacy eventually may "affect views about
how health research is done and how people's personal genetic
information is used in that research," said Decima's summary, quietly
posted on the website of the Canadian Biotechnology Secretariat.

The summary provided only selected results from the telephone survey
of 778 Canadians and 781 Americans done between March 19 and 30. A
sample of this size reflects general public opinion within 3.5
percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error is greater
when comparing results between Canada and the U.S.

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This GMO news service is underwritten by a generous grant from the Newman's
Own Foundation and is a production of the Ecological Farming Association
www.eco-farm.org <http://www.eco-farm.org/>
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