OGM:pressione consumatori funziona

["AlessandroGimona"<agimona@libero.it>]

Cari tutti,
un articolo che dimostra come la pressione dei consumatori per la 
separazione di filiera sta agendo sul mercato.
Vi e' un crescente orientamento a richiedere la separazione del mais 
transgenico da parte del mercato.

Spero interessi,
Alessandro Gimona


CORN GROWER ELEVATOR SURVEY SHOWS STRONG DEMAND FOR
         FARMER SEGREGATION
         October 5, 2000

         American Corn Growers Foundation
         http://www.acga.org
         WASHINGTON, -- As part of the Farmer Choice-Customer First, a 
written,
         developed and funded program of the American Corn Growers 
Foundation
         (ACGF), the second annual survey of grain elevators has been 
completed
         showing a sizeable majority of grain elevators either requiring 
or
         suggesting the segregation of genetically modified (GMO) corn 
from non-GMO
         corn.
         1,107 grain elevators in nine states were surveyed. 338 
elevators or 30.5%
         are either requiring or suggesting segregation at their 
elevator gate and
         461 elevators, or 41.6% are either requiring or suggesting 
farmers undertake
         on-farm segregation before delivery of their corn. Taken 
together, 72.1% of
         grain elevators are either requiring or suggesting segregation 
at the
         elevator or on the farm. Responses from other questions on the 
survey show
         244
         elevators or 22% are providing premiums for non-GMO corn, with 
the range
         being from 10 to 35 cents. "As more and more foreign and 
domestic customers
         are demanding the labeling of corn shipments, these high number 
of elevators
         either demanding or suggesting segregation are not surprising," 
said Gale
         Lush, a corn producer from Wilcox, Nebraska and the Chairman of 
the American
         Corn Growers Foundation.
         Segregation is one of the major concerns to U.S. farmers 
surrounding the
         entire issue of GMO products. In a survey commissioned by the 
ACGF in May of
         this year, 76% of farmers said they would be less likely to 
plant GMOs in
         the future if the burden for segregation fell on them. With 
41.6% of the
         elevators either requiring or suggesting that their 
farmer-customer
         segregate on the farm, this does not bode well for the 
proliferation of
         agricultural biotechnology.
         The demands of on-farm segregation will add additional costs to 
production
         agriculture, including a loss of efficiency and the expense of 
testing and
         certification. Couple this burden with the uncertainty of loss 
of markets,
         legal liability and corporate concentration, farmers will need 
to think long
         and hard before making their planting intentions for next 
year," added
         Dennis Mitchell, a member of the ACGF Board of Directors and a 
corn grower
         from Houghton, South Dakota.
         "It is very possible that the United States could see a bigger 
drop in GMO
         planted corn acres next year then the 20.4% drop exhibited this 
past year,"
         concluded Gary Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer of the ACGF.
         Elevators surveyed were located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, 
Kansas,
         Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Nebraska and South Dakota. Indiana, 
Kansas and
         Ohio were added this year.
         The American Corn Growers Foundation, neutral on the issue of 
agricultural
         biotechnology, developed Farmer Choice-Customer First as an 
educational
         program geared towards providing unbiased, honest and objective
         information to production agriculture on the subject of
         genetically modified crop products.
Alessandro Gimona
agimona@libero.it