There is no economic benefit in establishing a genetically modified-free zone in Canada, says a report from the George Morris Centre.
“Most consumers are unlikely to perceive that non-GM products sourced from a GM-free zone provide an added value sufficient to warrant the payment of an additional premium,” said author Martin Gooch.
“They expect to receive an assurance that GM-free products do not contain GM material regardless of whether or not they were produced in a guaranteed GM-free region.”
After interviewing buyers from a number of different countries, as well as a variety of agrifood marketing experts, Gooch determined little if any extra money could be squeezed out of a GM-free zone designation.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
But there would be significant extra costs associated with enforcing such a system along with the potential for legal challenges from those who want to grow GM crops.
Gooch’s findings don’t jibe well with the beliefs of the group that asked him to look into the issue.
The Prince Edward Island Certified Organic Producers Co-op is pushing premier Patrick Binns to designate the island a GM-free province, claiming the move would “have many benefits and few disadvantages, if any.”
Co-op chair Raymond Loo blames himself for the disappointing results of the George Morris study.
“We asked the wrong question when we asked (the centre) to search this information for us.”
He said the study, funded by the provincial and federal governments, should have explored what markets exist for GM-free products and how P.E.I. could best exploit those markets rather than focusing solely on the cost-benefit analysis of establishing a GM-free zone.
Finding a viable alternative to a GM-free zone will be the approach going forward, said Loo, who recently met with the premier and the provincial agriculture minister to discuss the report.
“My suggestion is we just make it a crop insurance issue. Anybody who is growing a GM crop has to pay a high crop insurance premium,” said Loo.
Organic farmers and hybrid seed growers could then have a vehicle for seeking compensation if GM seed contaminates their crops.
While other options are on the table, Loo is not willing to concede the original concept is dead despite the fact that the idea was panned by groups like CropLife Canada when Binns originally proposed it.
“I certainly haven’t closed the door to coming off the island and seeing a big sign up on the Confederation Bridge saying, ‘you’re entering the only GM-free province in Canada,’ ” he said.
Gooch said regulating such a zone would be impractical. Brazil’s attempt to do so has failed, with a number of the country’s producers growing black market GM seed brought in from Uruguay and Argentina.
With no infrastructure to properly segregate the two divergent methods of production, Brazil has a serious contamination problem on its hands, a situation unacceptable to its key customers in Europe.
Gooch said buyers put more faith in segregation, testing and other protocols than they do in meaningless designations.
He also concluded the demand for products whose only differing attribute is that they are non-GMO is likely to diminish significantly in all markets over the next decade as consumers look for other added benefits such as those offered by the organic sector.
