Lyle Wright of Kerrobert, Sask., wonders if we have learned from the Triffid flax situation.
Recent chaos in the Canadian flax market should not be the unexpected surprise that the industry is claiming it to be.
Many farm groups were concerned with the seed industry’s inability to control the unwanted spread of genetically modified crops once they are released into Mother Nature.
Our experience with GM canola plus the fact that our major flax markets demanded, and still demand, zero GM traits, led farmers to demand that CDC Triffid be deregistered and removed from the market.
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GM traits are not controllable. Parallel production systems of GM and non GM crops cannot exist. Nature uses wind, water, insects, birds and animals to spread pollen and seeds. Volunteers in the field a few years latter are also a problem.
We cannot perfectly clean machines between seed lots and fields. Seed cleaning equipment is another source of contamination. As well, seeds sometimes blow off trucks or are dumped on roadsides or in farmyards when truck boxes are cleaned. Even the plot equipment at breeding institutions is not immune to seed lot cross contamination. A positive test is one seed in 40,000.
With this in mind, I find it hard to understand the attack on farm-saved seed. Industry’s proposed solution to our Triffid problem is to insist that all seed for 2010 must be pedigreed.
If I have a variety of flax that my market is happy with and the germination is good and I have the same GM tests performed on it as a pedigreed seed grower would, why am I a risk to the industry?
I agree that all seed needs to be tested for the presence of this unwanted GM trait but I disagree that the solution is only pedigreed seed. I also wonder why the results of these tests on pedigreed seed will be made public only on a voluntary basis. Surely farmers seeking seed for this spring could use that information.
By forcing the use of pedigreed seed as well as declaring zero responsibility in the case of a post harvest positive GM test, the industry is being a bit arrogant .
This is not a condemnation of seed growers. We were a third generation pedigreed seed farm up to a few years ago. A shortage of local help and the need to “go big or go home,” as well as the trend to increasing levies and royalties, escalating lab, inspection and membership fees and closed loop production contracts played a role in our exit from the industry.
Believe me, we have decades of experience in cleaning combines and seed plants, but our best efforts could never be guaranteed to be perfect. We understand the need for market acceptance and food safety reviews of any new biotechnology before it is developed and released.
This brings up the question of the seed industry’s mantra of “science only, no market acceptance required” when evaluating the merit of registering new varieties of crops.
GM wheat and GM alfalfa are being developed and considered for production in Canada. In my opinion, both would present enormous risk to our agriculture.
Regarding the concept of “science only” as the measuring stick, whose science? Where did the concept of substantial equivalence come from? This one label has negated further testing requirements on these new GM crops. Even the new SmartStax corn that has eight GM traits received blanket approval from the food inspection, environment and health departments. Looks like a duck, sounds like duck, must be a duck.
Actually, doesn’t this remind us of a Greek story? Odysseus was laying siege to the city of Troy, trying to recover the beautiful Helen and some stolen treasure. The Greeks built a large wooden horse that was hollow and large enough to contain Odysseus and several other soldiers. The horse was presented as a peace offering to Troy.
The Trojans hauled the horse inside the city walls and proceeded with a drunken celebration. Late that night, the soldiers inside the horse slayed the Trojans and burned their city.
What’s this story have to do with the GM tribulation in our flax industry? Well, the wooden horse was substantially equivalent to a gift horse.
I wonder what other Trojans we are releasing on our world without a clue as to future consequences?
All of this is playing out in an atmosphere of increased deregulation. Industry can test, industry can determine our registration system, industry knows best. Industry, through research partnerships with public institutions, now pays a fraction of the total cost of breeding and evaluation but is awarded total ownership of the new varieties.
What happened to publicly funded, publicly owned research? This is not a tirade against private industry deserving a fair return on investment but I believe that awarding total ownership with zero liability is an insane public policy.
If farmers and citizens in general are concerned about the increased concentration of seed ownership, the criminalization of farm-saved seed and the reduction of regulation to protect the common good, then we’ll have to do more than watch our prime minister frolic at the Olympics while Parliament is shut down.
Watch and appreciate the talent of the Olympians, but also make the effort to express your concerns. If you don’t, who will?
