Monsanto has made its “full submission” on Roundup Ready wheat to federal agencies, pushing the controversial crop one step closer to the farmer’s field.
But Monsanto said it is not rushing through the approval process and will not introduce the genetically modified wheat until many other conditions exist.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Wheat Board is trying to establish an organization that would be able to block the GM variety’s approval if it appears to endanger prairie farmers’ markets for wheat.
“We have been encouraging government to consider market impact in the decision process and ensure that (strict conditions are met) before anything gets registered,” said Gord Flaten, CWB director of market development.
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A group representing farmers and the grain industry should be set up to fill in a regulatory gap, Flaten said.
Right now, GM wheat has to be approved by a number of government agencies that will determine whether it is safe as food, as animal feed and for the environment.
Each variety of GM wheat would also have to be approved by the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain.
But none of these bodies will look at whether introducing GM wheat could endanger markets for Canadian wheat.
“A separate group needs to be created to do that assessment,” said Flaten.
Now that Monsanto’s GM wheat has been presented to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, it may wait months or years to find out whether it will be approved.
One Monsanto GM wheat variety, BW251, has finished two years of private registration trials, but will not be presented at this February’s recommending committee meetings for approval, said Monsanto spokesperson Trish Jordan.
It is “impossible” for its GM wheat to become commercially available this summer and “almost impossible” to become available next summer, she said.
Jordan said even if Monsanto receives approvals from the government agencies and from the committee, it won’t begin selling the wheat to farmers until three conditions exist. It has to establish rules for growing the crop that will control it, the grain handling system must be able to segregate the crop, and there must be customers willing to buy it.
It will also not go forward until there are generally accepted tolerance levels among grain buyers to prevent rejections of non-GM shipments because they contain trace amounts of GM wheat, Jordan said.
“We still have a lot of work we have to do and the grain industry has to do to put a system in place to handle this,” said Jordan.
