The Flax Council of Canada has released its 2009-10 Triffid test results, which show widespread contamination of the crop with genetically modified flax.
Laboratories have analyzed more than 6,000 samples taken from commercial deliveries, as well as from pedigreed and farm-saved seed.
About 10 percent of those samples tested positive for CDC Triffid, an unapproved GM flax variety that caused a major trade disruption with Europe in 2009.
“What we had initially hoped is that we would find some pockets of problem so it would be easier to contain and deal with but the samples with Triffid in them were spread everywhere,” said Les Rankin, head of the Flax Canada 2015 initiative.
Read Also
British Columbia farmers to receive increased AgriStability supports
B.C. farmers to receive bump in AgriStability compensations due to weather concerns, international trade instability
A positive result is triggered if the sample contains 0.01 percent or more of the Triffid variety.
“If it was 0.1 instead of 0.01 percent, I think everything probably would be OK,” he said.
But the Europeans continue to insist on the 0.01 percent standard, forcing Canadian farmers and grain companies to implement protocols to ensure they can weed Triffid out of flax shipments destined for Europe.
On Sept. 1, 2010, a two kilogram sample of any flax entering the handling system will be collected and four 60 gram subsamples will be tested for Triffid contamination instead of one 60 gram subsample under the existing protocol.
“All four lots must be Triffid-free for the result to be considered a negative result,” said the Flax Council of Canada in an Aug. 6 press release.
The new procedure is expected to improve the confidence that harvest samples are Triffid-free to 95 percent from about 60 percent under the old procedure.
But it will double the testing cost for Canada’s flax producers.
Rankin is hoping for an improvement in test results because this year’s seed was tested for Triffid before it went in the ground.
The testing protocol is a necessary evil because it has restored trade with Europe.
Canadian exporters shipped 238,100 tonnes of flax to that market through the first 11 months of the 2009-10 crop year, making Europe Canada’s top flax customer.
“This seems expensive and seems troubling but it’s getting the prime market back, so it’s worth it,” said Rankin.
The varieties that had the most Triffid contamination in the 2009-10 survey results were ones that emanated from the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre.
But how a GM flax variety that was never commercialized became so prevalent in the countryside remains an unsolved mystery.
