The slower pace of development of genetically modified wheat and barley should allow Canada the time needed to develop a system that will deliver what customers want.
But we better get to work now, or we won’t be ready in time.
Canadian Wheat Board head Greg Arason recently told grain industry executives that when new genetically modified cereals become commercially available in a few years, Canada will need to segregate them from regular wheat. Otherwise, it will lose sales to customers who won’t buy GM foods.
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He raised some eyebrows when he suggested new GM cereal varieties should not be registered until there is certainty that our major buyers will accept them, or we have a verifiable segregation system.
Many in Canada’s food industry, particularly the canola sector, feel embattled these days as they try to refute a barrage of criticism from Greenpeace and others who are against GM foods.
They already feel the federal government isn’t properly defending the integrity of Canada’s food safety system. And now here comes the head of the wheat board raising the possibility of a moratorium on registering GM cereals.
Won’t this just play into the hands of the fear mongers?
It’s hard to say how the anti-GM forces will react. But the wheat board can’t be criticized for protecting the interests of cereal growers.
About a year ago, we reported that the board was surveying its customers about their views on GM crops.
This summer we reported the results. Some buyers had no concerns but many others did or at least felt public unease would force them to avoid buying GM grain.
Based on this information, the board decided it should include in its marketing an aggressive program to provide customers the scientific data needed to show the safety of GM cereals that Canada will want to sell.
But it also recognizes that no matter how good its marketing program, some customers will not buy GM products.
The board believes the customer is always right, even when it might be scientifically wrong.
It knows that a competitor will be eager to do the business if Canada can’t supply a customer’s needs.
It will be several years before gene-altered cereals are developed to the point of commercial viability.
In the meantime, we can hope there will be more agreement around the world about the safety of GM foods, but we can’t count on it.
We must begin to prepare today so that we can continue to sell to a wide but divided market in the future.
