Purdue University President Mitch Daniels on Thursday, February 25, called on leaders in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to push back against the attackers of biotechnology in agricultural production. Daniels was a keynote speaker at the annual Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington.
“The attack on GMO technology is the most blatant anti-science of the age, but it is far worse than that,” Daniels said. “Lives are at stake, and while scientists, regulators and business people are naturally reluctant to fight back, it’s morally irresponsible not to.”
Daniels cited projections by the United Nations that the global population is expected to grow to more than 9 billion people in 2050, generating a 70 percent increase in the demand for food. He described GMOs as the best hope to ensure the world’s poor have access to an affordable and nutritious diet.
“Thousand of studies and trillions of meals consumed prove the safety of biotechnologies,” he said. “We would never withhold medications with a safety record like that, and it’s just as wrong and just as anti-scientific to do so for food.”
Daniels also praised Purdue and other land-grant universities for making the world’s food supply not only safer and more abundant, but far friendlier to the environment.
Daniels cited work done by the university’s World Food Prize winners as well as the Purdue Improved Crop Storage program as examples of land-grant initiatives that are making a difference in the developing world. He also described a forthcoming study by Purdue agricultural economist Wally Tyner and colleagues that concluded if the United States banned GMO crops, consumers would pay at least $14 billion more in annual food costs and global agricultural greenhouse gases would increase by up to 17 percent.
ALDI opens its first eight southern California locations on Thursday, March 24. The ALDI grand openings will mark a significant milestone for the grocery retailer as it prepares to open approximately 45 stores and employ more than 1,100 people in southern California by the end of 2016.
“Ever since we announced our plan to bring ALDI to Southern California, the positive response from people across the Southland has been overwhelming, and we’re excited to start opening stores next month and throughout the year,” said Gordon Nesbit, Moreno Valley division Vice President for ALDI. “There is a strong appetite among southern Californians for an alternative place to shop and we are eager to show them the significant benefits that can come from shopping at ALDI, both for their wallets and lifestyles.”
When shopping at ALDI for the first time, customers will immediately see a difference from other grocery stores. Those little differences add up to big savings for customers and are the key reasons ALDI is one of America’s favorite grocery stores: