Canada’s definition of new plant traits is hurting the country’s plant breeding industry, say researchers.
Canadian regulations require that most plants developed through mutagenesis and traditional breeding techniques that contain traits “substantially different” than their parents, be tested for environmental stability and food safety.
Mutagenesis is a plant breeding process in which seeds of a crop are blasted with chemicals or radiation in the hopes that mutations will create valuable new genes.
In other major exporting regions, such as the United States and the European Union, such tests are necessary only if the new traits are developed through the genetic modification process of adding genes from one organism into or onto another.
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Gordon Rowland, who develops flax varieties at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, said smaller crops like flax are most deeply affected by the regulations because standard gene splicing techniques are not widely used in lesser grown crops.
“It creates an innovation barrier for plant genetics in Canada,” he said.
“Right now I’m not doing any mutation breeding as a result of these regulations and I’m not alone.”
Whether a new variety is “substantially different” enough to be put through the environmental stability and food safety tests is examined on a case-by-case basis.
“It adds cost and time,” Rowland said. ” We need to be able to respond with new consumer desirable traits for the marketplace to keep farmers competitive, but also for disease or pest resistance. It doesn’t take much of a change in a plant to get it caught under the CFIA’s (Canadian Food Inpection Agency) net.”
Fees for testing range from a few hundred dollars to $2,000. The major costs are the test plots and the seasons it takes to operate them.
In 1994, the Canadian government established rules for testing new plant varieties that have new traits or traits that the Plant Biosafety Office says are “not substantially equivalent to plants of the same species in Canada.”
These new varieties are called plants with novel traits, or PNTs.
Customers of Canadian grains have been confused about the Canadian definition of PNTs, likening it to the GM definition used by the U.S., EU, Japan and others.
But Phil MacDonald, speaking for CFIA, defended Canada’s definition as the leading edge.
“The GMO definition is not going to be defensible in the long run,” he said.
“In very short order Roundup Ready canola will able to be produced using site-directed mutagenesis. One variety is a GMO and one is not because of the breeding technique? I don’t think so. It is the impact on the environment that is important.”
MacDonald admitted the PNT definition has been an issue for plant breeders, but said CFIA’s focus is on environmental safety and food safety.
“We aren’t going to step backward just because we are in the lead. Scientifically, our method is the best one and other countries will reach the same conclusions eventually.”
Patty Rosher of the Canadian Wheat Board said the board would like to see “a regulatory system that is appropriate.”
In the past, the board has called on the CFIA to standardize its PNT regulations with the rest of the world and use the GMO standards.
“When a PNT is approved, it goes on the CFIA website. To a consumer country, they don’t see the difference of a PNT and GMO. They see the labelling. Customers ask us and we have to reassure them. Being out of sync does cause us some issues,” she said.
“Radiant is a conventionally bred winter wheat that is resistant to wheat streak mosaic virus and it is being hung up right now in PNT testing.”
Rob Graff of Agriculture Canada’s research centre in Lethbridge bred Radiant. He said the variety was sent back to him to prove it isn’t a PNT.
“I don’t think it is and right now I’m preparing a package to send back to them that I hope will prove that. But these things take up time.
“Plant breeders in Canada are pretty much unanimous that Canada should have a definition that is similar to the rest of the world.”
Regardless of its PNT status, Radiant lacks adequate rust resistance so its release has been delayed while new versions are tested.
MacDonald said the CFIA is planning to release new regulations in the next month, which breeders hope will more clearly define PNT.
