OTTAWA — For those who believe the debate over whether to approve the use of a manufactured dairy growth hormone symbolizes the attitude toward products of biotechnology, critics have a blunt message: Think again.
Opponents of the early introduction of bovine somatotropin (BST) into the Canadian dairy herd say it is the product itself that is at issue, not the process or science.
“I am not anti-science nor anti-biotechnology,” said Bloc QuŽbecois agriculture critic Jean-Paul Marchand. “But BST is the wrong product at the wrong time dealing with the wrong food.”
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On the Commons agriculture committee which will recommend this week that BST approval be delayed, Liberal Wayne Easter and Marchand were the two strongest opponents.
For Easter, a Prince Edward Island dairy farmer and former National Farmers Union president, the issues were whether it would sully Canada’s reputation for high-quality breeding stock exports, whether it would cause a consumer backlash against dairy products and whether it would be another tool to undermine supply management.
Tarnishing the perfect food
For Marchand, there was the issue of undermining the image of milk, which he and several other MPs described in almost religious terms as the symbol of purity. There were unresolved doubts about side-effects.
But above all, there was the contention that BST is not needed. Many dairy farmers are skeptical, consumers are fearful and the system doesn’t need more milk.
Drug and chemical companies should spend more time and money developing products that truly are needed and will make society a better place, argued Marchand.
“The drug companies picked a very poor product to be a test case,” he said.
For defenders of BST, that is exactly what is at stake.
Representatives of the drug companies argued that Ottawa’s handling of the application to approve BST will be a signal to the industry about how their biotech products will be treated in future.
Committee members like Reform MP Leon Benoit from Vegreville saw things the same way.
“I believe a moratorium could well be the death of BST in Canada,” he told the committee.
If it is not approved now, the companies could decide Canada is not a good risk for the products of biotechnology and gene-manipulation. This would leave Canadian farmers at a competitive disadvantage compared to American farmers.
“I’m really afraid of the message rejection will send out to the industry,” Benoit said after one day of hearings was finished. “We are going to have to compete. We can’t close the door on any new tool that will help.”
