A spokesperson for a group that represents pesticide and biotechnology companies, said organic farmers’ rights shouldn’t interfere with the rights of other growers who might want to use genetically modified wheat when it becomes commercially available.
“If Europe has zero tolerance for GM content, then Canadian farmers don’t sell to Europe,” said Denise Dewar of CropLife Canada in a phone interview following a Canadian Wheat Board meeting on herbicide tolerant crops.
“It is unreasonable to set a zero tolerance. It’s an unfair trade barrier that the government of Canada has committed to fight with the United States through the (World Trade Organization).”
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She said until the dispute over tolerance levels is settled, Canadian organic farmers can sell to other markets.
Farmers attending the Saskatoon meeting heard plant researchers, economists, biotech and agricultural chemical company officials, and farmers say that once a GM cereal crop is released for commercial production, a bit of it would spread on every farm in Western Canada.
Degree of spread and the effects that would have on Canadian wheat markets are questions pondered by many industry groups.
“An (identity preserved) grain handling system will be necessary,” said Dale Adolphe, executive director of the Canadian Seed Growers Association.
“Control of (crop) volunteers will be necessary. Growers’ agreements will help. In the end, there is no such thing as zero tolerance. There will be pollen transfers, mechanical mixing on the farm, at the seed plant, in the grain handling system. What we have to establish is a level of tolerance if it (GM wheat) is introduced.”
Organic producers at the event said it would be unfair to them to introduce a crop that could eliminate some of their markets.
Ray Bauml, an organic grain producer from Marysburg, Sask., said his grain earns a 50 to 300 percent price premium because it is GM free and organic. His wheat couldn’t be sold into the large European market if it contained GM genes, he said.
“We know from experience already that if even one kernel of GM seed is found in that container of grain, when that grain is tested at the dock in Europe, it sits on the dock until we pay to have it dumped into the ocean.”
Curtis Remple, commercial development manager with Monsanto Canada, repeated his company’s assurances that it is committed to protecting the Canadian grain industry.
“Before we release a commercial crop like Roundup Ready wheat there have to be thresholds for Canadian Wheat Board customer acceptance. We aren’t going to intentionally ruin the Canadian wheat industry. That wouldn’t be a good business move for Monsanto,” he said.
Richard Gray, head of the University of Saskatchewan’s agricultural economics department, said Canada’s millers and bakers won’t accept GM wheat, which will hurt “technology adopters and non-adopters alike.
“They see the new food labelling requirements on the horizon and they don’t want to have to indicate that their bread contains GM products, no matter how small the amount,” Gray said.
“The organic industry isn’t alone on this.”
