NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – Iowa corn producer Bill Horan stood before representatives from Canada’s leading biotechnology companies, creators of genetically modified seeds, and read thankful letters sent to him from parents of kids with diseases.
Five years ago, Horan’s family farm started growing GM corn under contract for pharmaceutical companies, providing them with ingredients for life-saving medicines.
“Getting letters like these are very gratifying,” said the Iowa farmer, who grows commercial corn, as well as pharmaceuticals and is involved in building a string of bio-diesel plants using corn as the raw product.
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Horan’s farmer perspective and good-news message about the next wave of GM products was the talk of the annual meeting of CropLife Canada Sept. 21.
For many of the companies that invest in biotech research and develop and market GM varieties, it was a highlight of a session meant to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the commercialization of GM varieties. The GM revolution started in Canada.
There were predictions of dramatic growth in GM acceptance around the world during the next half decade, and the marketing of new generations of drought-resistant crops, health-beneficial varieties, industrial products and pharmaceuticals.
“During the last 10 years, the main beneficiaries have been producers,” Monsanto executive vice-president Jerry Steiner told the convention. “The next decade is really bringing benefits that will be distributed through society.”
GM crops were touted as a major part of the effort to feed a growing world population on a diminishing agricultural land base, while conserving land and water, reducing pesticide use and making poor societies richer.
Clive James, an American and chair of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, said the technology will help achieve the dream of assassinated American civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King.
“Biotechnology will help alleviate poverty and bring peace,” he said.
But the conference also produced mixed messages. Several speakers suggested the industry has problems.
Ipsos-Reid food issues pollster Curtis Johnson said while consumer skepticism toward GM food products has stabilized and even declined slightly, most Canadians are still skeptical and see it as a food safety issue rather than the industry preference that it be an issue of scientific risk assessment.
“I would say there is a stable amount of resistance,” said the Winnipeg pollster.
He also predicted organic products, with their GM and chemical-free status, will capture up to 20 percent of the food market in the future.
While some market skepticism exists, biotech industry executive Garth Hodges suggested the optimism of industry boosters should be tempered with a realistic assessment of obstacles.
The Bayer CropScience Canada Inc. general manager for canola seed said consumer resistance and politics remain obstacles to the industry’s growth.
Hodges said marketplace resistance has already reduced benefits that biotechnology research could have brought to farmers. Anti-GM activists, government regulations, trade barriers and politically mandated moratoriums on GM production or sales all loom as impediments to growth in Canada and around the world.
“I believe we have a long way to go to achieve what is possible,” said Hodges.
