The country’s move to prohibit Clearfield canola has no legal or scientific rationale, says the Canola Council of Canada
The Canola Council of Canada is concerned that France is poised to break ranks with the rest of the world on how it regulates Clearfield canola.
A French court has ruled that the cultivation of Clearfield canola should be regulated the same way as genetically modified crops, which means it would be prohibited.
The ruling was originally set to come into effect on Aug. 7 but has been postponed to Nov. 11 due to pressure from industry groups within and outside of the European Union.
A paltry 25,000 acres of Clearfield canola are grown in France but that is not the concern.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
The draft decree states that the ruling would have no impacts on international trade. However, the Canola Council and the Canada Grains Council are concerned that it could indeed jeopardize Canada’s growing canola trade with the EU.
Canada exported 1.93 million tonnes of canola to the EU in the first 11 months of the 2019-20 crop year, with a little more than half of that going to France.
Brian Innes, vice-president of public affairs with the Canola Council, said what starts as a ban on the cultivation of Clearfield could morph into a law restricting importation of the varieties.
About five percent of the canola grown in Canada is Clearfield canola, which was developed through a breeding technique known as mutagenesis.
Until now, mutagenesis has been considered by European countries as different from genetic modification and not subject to the same regulations.
Some EU member countries forbid the planting of GM canola but all member states are obliged to allow the importation of GM crops that have gone through the EU’s approval process.
France’s proposed Clearfield cultivation ban flies in the face of the EU’s assessment and approval process, said Innes.
That could prove problematic because while Clearfield is not widely grown in Canada, it would be impossible to meet any potential zero tolerance import rules coming out of France.
“We would be able to detect Clearfield canola in virtually all of our canola,” he said.
The Canada Grains Council submitted comments to the French Counseil d’Etat regarding its decree.
In those comments, the council wonders why only herbicide-tolerant canola has been identified for deregistration when there are literally thousands of varieties of crops that have been developed through mutagenesis.
“We believe this may be unfairly targeting canola without a legal or scientific rationale,” stated the council.
Innes said the court case was initiated in 2015 by the Confederation Paysanne, a left-of-centre French farm group that is opposed to agricultural technology.
He worries this is a new “mechanism” being employed by anti-technology groups to shape EU agricultural policy. It could have an impact on the adoption of future breeding techniques like gene editing.
“We’re watching it closely,” he said.
Innes said the council is trying to be proactive by helping thwart the potential trade barrier before it is in place.
It will continue to work with the Canada Grains Council, federal government officials and like-minded industry and farm groups in the EU to contest the proposed policy.
