Cliff Mulder, Farmer

Safety | Food Prize | Family Farm |

Transcript for Clip 1 -- Safety

I'm a consumer as well as a producer. I consider safety probably my utmost factor in selecting a product that I growÉ. I consider the safety of [using genetically engineered plants], to my own use, much safer than using an insecticide... As a farmer, I have to rely on the regulatory people, the [United Stated Department of Agriculture], the people who are concerned about the safety and who are regulating this. There has been a lot of research into it. Nothing has ever come out that says it was bad for our health; whereas, we're finding out generations later that petrochemicals can be and have been carcinogenic to us. I can see herbicides and insecticides being replaced by genetically enhanced or modified seed.

Transcript for Clip 2 -- Food Prize:

There are two people who just won a prize for genetically enhanced wheat [that should] keep some Third World...people from starving. Well, Greenpeace didn't jump on that. They didn't say anything about it. They think it's great. In fact, they call it genetically "enhanced" not genetically "modified." When we grow something, all of a sudden it's "genetically modified." Nobody wants to do anything with it. I'm thinking that the cornborer resistant corn is just as gentically enhanced as what the [genetically enhanced] wheat is. So far I'm fully in favor of [GE corn] or I wouldn't plant it. I think safety being our number one concern, financially, it has all been a plus so far.

Transcript for Clip 3 -- Family Farm:

...We are not on the farm growing a product just for a corporation. We want to keep away from that. We don't want to be working for DuPont, Monsanto, and Dow. We want to still be an independent farmer and have the choice. You want somebody out here growing your food who has a conscience. That's one reason why we need to keep the small farmer in Iowa. I think, I eat, breathe, and drink as well as you do and I want to eat and drink good food.
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 Posted March 6, 2001