Whats the outlook for genetically engineered foods in the U.S. and other countries?
Europe has been especially resistant. A: In 1996, when genetically engineered crops first came onto the market, they were grown on 4.3 million acres. Now, they’re grown on 145 million acres worldwide. That’s tremendous growth, and each year, the acreage continues to go up. There are 16 countries now growing such crops, and the adoption will continue to grow. Once the Europeans have done more testing, they’ll adopt it also. In the early 1900s, when pasteurization first was used to reduce microbial contamination in milk, it was very controversial — despite the fact that it tremendously reduced the rate of infant mortality. When frozen food was first being produced, some states tried to ban it based on the belief it was unhealthy. Nowadays we take pasteurization and frozen food for granted. I think the same will happen with biotechnology.
