Non-browning apple Okanagan Specialty Fruits says United States regulators will rule on GM apple before Canada does
The biotechnology company that has developed a non-browning apple hopes U.S. authorities will approve it as early as this spring, with Canada to follow five or six months after that.
Canadian groups opposed to the apple’s introduction have launched a new campaign to stop that approval.
Okanagan Specialty Fruits owner Neal Carter, who developed the non-browning Arctic apple, said the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) began a second comment period Nov. 8 as part of its process toward deregulating the genetically modified fruit.
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He expects approval shortly after the comment period is complete Dec. 9.
If that happens, “it means that come the spring of 2014, we can be planting Arctic apple trees completely unencumbered. They would then be treated like any other apple cultivar and they can be planted, they can be propagated, the fruit can be produced and fruit can be sold and consumed,” said Carter.
“They basically become a mainstream product then.”
The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network and the Society for a GE-Free B.C. began a series of 32 public events in British Columbia and Alberta last week to raise awareness about GM food in general and GM apples in particular.
Tony Beck of GE Free B.C. said his group has four main objections to introducing GM crop varieties in Canada:
- Lack of independent testing;
- Lack of public consultation;
- The certainty of cross-pollination;
- Worries about effects on export markets.
“There should be public consultations, and companies shouldn’t be allowed to develop these kinds of products without that consultation,” said Beck.
“We don’t know the decision-making process. We don’t know when the decision will be made. There’s nothing transparent. It’s basically a secretive process.”
Carter said the U.S. process is far more transparent than the Canadian one, although he believes that may improve, based on his discussions with Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
However, the Canadian comment period regarding the apple was 60 days, with two pages of information provided for public use on the website.
In contrast, the U.S. had two comment periods with 200 pages comprising full disclosure of company and government documents and studies.
A public opinion poll commissioned by the B.C. Fruit Growers Association, which is opposed to GM apple introduction, indicated 69 percent of those polled do not want it approved.
Beck said last week that there is no need for a non-browning apple.
“Our polls show that there’s only one group of people who want the apple right now, which are the small group of investors in Okanagan Specialty Fruits, who are holding everyone else effectively for ransom.”
Carter said the non-browning apple modification, which has been applied to Granny Smith and Golden Delicious varieties so far, could lead to more apple use in food service and fresh-cut markets and help boost apple consumption.
“I think that the shareholders in our company have been very, very patient. A lot of them are apple growers themselves,” he said.
“The shareholders’ interest is of course to develop something new, exciting and unique and that really is what Arctic apples are all about.”
He also disputes concerns about GM contamination of other apple varieties.
“They are forgetting the biology of apples,” he said of groups protesting Arctic apple introduction.
“An apple as a crop is a perfect crop for the use of biotechnology because it’s bee pollinated and vegetatively propagated.”
He said pollen spread via bees between varieties such as Fuji and Gala does not create variety issues, and the same would be true with Arctic apples. The APHIS report, which is accessible online, has addressed concerns about spread, he added.
Beck said more research is needed about pollen flow as well as trees that grow from seed.
“We know for sure that there will be contamination and cross-pollination,” he said.
“It’s 100 percent certain that if genetically engineered apples are released, they will cross-pollinate with other apples. Two of the four main apple species that are eaten now in B.C., including the Ambrosia, were developed from seeds that fell by the wayside.”
Beck and Carter agree that approval of the Arctic apple in the United States does not necessarily mean approval in Canada.
“There is no assumption that that’s true, but there hasn’t been a case where it wasn’t, so we’re pursuing regulatory approval in Canada as vigorously as in the U.S,” said Carter.
Beck partially agrees.
“It will probably go ahead in Canada if it’s approved in the U.S. That’s been the trend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean people are going to see it on supermarket shelves.”
He wants more municipalities in B.C. to declare themselves “GE free” and push the province to declare a moratorium on GM crop introduction that could be tested in the courts.
