Monsanto does not completely oppose the Canadian Wheat Board’s demand that the crop variety registration process be changed before Roundup Ready wheat is approved.
But if market access is to be part of the registration process, it had better be fair to the company and not just a means of blocking the genetically modified crop, said Curtis Rempel of Monsanto.
“If it’s always a grounds for denial … forget the public breeding system, forget the private breeding system, we’ll never have a new crop variety being passed in Canada because somebody will always have a trade issue with it,” said Rempel, who is overseeing Roundup Ready wheat development.
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But if crop developers were able to use market access to prove they had customers who wanted the variety, and that information could be used to grant approval, then companies like Monsanto might not object, said Rempel.
“It’s pretty easy to prove there’s a market for this,” he said.
Monsanto has argued against the wheat board’s campaign to include market access in the registration process. The board feels many international customers may stop buying Canadian wheat if prairie farmers grow genetically modified wheat, fearing the GM varieties may get into conventional wheat supplies.
However, under present rules, there is no way to hold a GM variety back if it passes basic agronomic criteria.
The federal government has set up an interdepartmental committee to come up with a solution to the problem. Patty Rosher of the board said its recommendations will likely be presented to the wheat board and agriculture ministers this fall.
Rosher said the board thinks it is vital that farmers have some protection, even if Monsanto says customers are ready to accept GM wheat.
“We just don’t want to leave it in their hands,” said Rosher.
Monsanto says it wants to get regulatory approval for its GM wheat in Japan, the United States and Canada before it takes its variety forward.
It also wants to secure a customer who will pay a premium price for the product, and develop a closed system that will guarantee the grain gets to the customer.
Rosher said that isn’t sufficient.
“It’s not getting the Roundup Ready wheat to the customer that’s the issue, it’s making sure it doesn’t get into the rest of it,” she said.
“(Monsanto) doesn’t want StarLink to happen to them either, but they have pressure to get some return on their investment.”
And customers may be more fussy than regulators.
“Regulatory approval in those three countries is not the same as customer acceptance in a sufficient number of countries,” said Rosher.
