The Council of Canadians has launched a national campaign to limit the spread of genetically modified crops.
“It’s part of the international movement that’s taking place for communities to declare themselves GM-free zones,” said Tara Scurr, British Columbia organizer for the council.
The goal is to have 50 communities in Canada declare themselves GM-free over the next two years, following the lead of countries like Ireland where 1,000 communities made a similar declaration on Earth Day 2005.
The movement is in its early days in Canada.
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Residents in Salt Spring Island and Powell River have convinced their municipal authorities to adopt GM-free resolutions and Prince Edward Island is in the middle of hearings to decide whether to take the entire province down that road.
But critics of the campaign feel organizers will be hard-pressed to find a following on the Prairies.
“I can’t see municipalities going for it,” said Bill Ross, executive manager of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association.
Canola is the second most important crop grown on the Prairies and 75 percent of it is Roundup Ready or Liberty Link varieties, so it would be difficult to establish any meaningful GE-free zone in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“Just about every farmer grows it,” said Ross.
The council wants the resolutions to be flexible and farmer-friendly. For communities where it is impractical to ban GM canola they may want to consider passing a resolution restricting the planting of pharmaceutical crops.
“We really feel that farmers have to lead this,” said Scurr.
Directives will differ substantially between urban and rural municipalities. For instance, Vancouver, which has no agricultural land base, may want to pass a resolution that city parks can’t buy GM shrubs, flowers or trees, she said.
Ross, who has some experience as a town councillor, said whatever language is adopted will be irrelevant because the municipality would have no right or obligation to enforce it.
“If you can’t enforce it, why make it?” he wondered.
Because it sends a message, said Scurr.
“Municipal resolutions are not legally binding but they send a political message that people are concerned about the lack of testing and problems of contamination.”
She anticipates there will be 20 GM-free zones in British Columbia by the end of 2006. Together they might have enough political clout to sway the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to carry an anti-GM resolution forward to the 2007 convention of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The council is also pushing for mandatory labelling laws.
The United Church of Canada is seeking identical goals.
In a letter sent to the prime minister last week the group called upon Paul Martin to declare an immediate moratorium on the approval of new GM varieties until a more rigorous approval and labelling system is in place.
“We need an independent government agency working at arm’s length to test and monitor all GM foods. This agency should publish all test results and make them available for scientific peer review,” said Mark Hathaway, biotechnology program officer for the church.
