As pressure on food manufacturers heats up over genetically modified foods, the canola trade is changing its approach.
The latest pressure comes from a Sierra Youth Coalition cross-country rail tour.
The tour, which kicked off in Halifax on Nov. 20, is scheduled to arrive in Seattle, Washington, in time for the World Trade Organization talks, which begin Nov. 30.
And with GMO products on the hot seat, the canola industry is delivering a different message to consumers.
Instead of trying to convince shoppers that GMOs aren’t bad for them, the industry is saying canola oil is GMO-free.
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The refining, bleaching and deodorizing process removes all detectable proteins from canola oil, said Dale Adolphe, president of the Canola Council of Canada. Along with the proteins go the offending DNA molecules that have caused all the uproar.
“Vegetable oils from corn, soybean and canola are not genetically modified, they are simply from a genetically modified plant,” Adolphe said.
But an official with oilseed crusher CanAmera Foods said it’s a tough message to promote because in Canada there is no recognized way to measure the level of GMOs in an end product. There isn’t even a proper definition for GMOs.
“That’s the crux of the whole problem,” said Doug Sparks, CanAmera’s general manager of refined oils.
There are no rules and regulations governing GMOs.
He said even though the best science available can’t detect GMOs in canola oil, that doesn’t mean you can call the product GMO-free.
Sparks said it’s up to the federal government to develop a set of GMO standards and measurements that the industry can work with. Until those standards are developed, it’s a free-for-all.
“You can bring a container in from Timbuktu and it could be stamped all over the place, ‘certified GMO-free origin,’ and you have no way of scientifically determining if that oil truly is from a GMO-free origin or not.”
Adolphe said it all boils down to how far consumers want to push the labeling issue. Is a Mr. Christie cookie GMO-free if one of its ingredients is canola oil that came from genetically modified seed? Or is the beef, chicken and pork we eat considered GMO-free if the animals were fed canola meal that came from a genetically modified crop?
He said these kinds of questions are why the industry needs guidelines.
Ottawa is developing guidelines for voluntary labeling of foods derived from biotechnology. The Canadian General Standards Board committee consists of technical experts from user, producer and general interest groups.
A spokesperson for the standards board said it’s too early to tell if the process will address concerns raised by Sparks and Adolphe.
“It’s premature to even discuss what will go into the standard,” said Fran Gershberg.
She thinks it will take the committee about 18 months to develop the voluntary labeling standard.
In the meantime, the canola people continue to push their message that canola oil is GMO-free. With the science that is available, GMOs are virtually undetectable in the oil.
“I guess if you looked long enough and hard enough with a big enough microscope you could probably find something, but they’re well less than one part per million,” said Sparks.
That doesn’t comfort Joan Russow, national leader of the Green Party of Canada, a group calling for a ban on all genetically modified crops.
The seed has been tampered with and she believes whatever process is done after that does not reduce the risk of consuming the end product.
And Russow believes the answer does not lie in voluntary labeling of GMO products. For her, the only solution is an all-out ban.
