The former NDP agriculture critic says the party does not have an official policy that supports mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods.
Last year Murray Rankin, NDP MP from Victoria, introduced a motion in the House of Commons asking the federal government to pass mandatory labeling of GM foods. Politicians never voted on the private members’ motion because it didn’t come up on the schedule before prime minister Stephen Harper called the federal election Aug. 2.
A member of Rankin’s campaign team said mandatory GMO labeling is part of the NDP’s policy book.
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However, Malcolm Allen, NDP candidate in Niagara Centre and agriculture critic in the last parliamentary session, said it’s not NDP caucus policy.
“Grassroots members (might) have passed something at a convention,” he said. “But it’s not something that MPs have actually done as a group … at a caucus meeting.”
Allen made the comments in response to a Twitter post by Mike Pasztor, who farms in Norfolk County, Ont. Pasztor tweeted a photo of Mulcair posing with anti-GMO activists.
The photo, taken in Ottawa in February, shows Mulcair holding up a “GMOs just label it” T-shirt along with Rachel Parent, an Ontario teenager who was campaigning for mandatory GM labeling in Canada.
Lucy Sharratt, who leads the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network that opposes GMO technology, was also in the photo.
Pasztor said he posted the photo on Twitter because he’s concerned that anti-agriculture activists could have influence over Canada’s next government.
“During a federal election not much centered around agriculture ever gets mentioned,” he said. “I think as farmers we need to be proactive in hearing where all these parties stand on these issues.”
Rob Stone, who farms near Davidson, Sask., said a six-month-old photo doesn’t prove that Mulcair supports GMO labeling but the NDP leader needs to clarify his position.
“I think it’s a really important thing for everyone to know,” said Stone. “This is a serious, massive thing for Canadian agriculture.”
Allen said he doesn’t support a simplistic approach to GM labeling, which scares rather than informs the public.
He said Rankin’s motion was unsatisfactory because it didn’t address the complexity and consequences of GM labeling.
“I’ve articulated before that we need clear labeling so folks understand what they are buying,” he said. “(But) changing labeling is difficult. To do it right so people get the information they deserve (but) you don’t go around damaging farmers … or processors from making the good food that they make.”
Pasztor said Mulcair’s pose with anti-GMO campaigners is comparable to the political situation in Ontario, where the provincial government imposed restrictive regulations for neonicotinoid seed treatments this summer.
The province said the policy, to cut neonicotinoid use by 80 percent, was necessary to protect bees and the broader environment.
Now Ontario farmers must complete an assessment proving that pests are threatening their crops before they can plant corn or soybean seed coated with a neonicotinoid insecticide.
Many Ontario farmers believe the Sierra Club and other environmental groups helped shape the province’s neonicotinoid policy.
Pasztor is worried that activists may soon exert similar influence over federal ag policy.
“It kind of scares me,” he said. “We’re seeing it first hand in Ontario, who they (politicians) are listening to. … Right now the activists have the platform.”
Stone agreed. If anti-biotechnology and anti-agriculture campaigners are influencing politicians, it has implications for all sorts of agricultural policies.
“What does this do to innovation in the future?… What does that do to investment in Canada if we have a very backwards approach to things?” he said.
“Canada has prospered and built itself around science, technology and innovation. To see that type of back in time, listening to the activist approach to how they’re going to run our economy, it’s really very concerning for me.”
Allen said Sharratt may have been in the photo with Mulcair but the NDP doesn’t support the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network and its policies on GM foods.
“We don’t have the same position as Lucy (Sharratt),” he said. “The caucus has never taken, nor as the ag critic have I ever written a policy that basically emulates Lucy Sharratt’s organization.”
Contact robert.arnason@producer.com
