The discovery of a small amount of genetically modified canola growing in European canola fields has Europeans in an uproar and Canadians scratching their heads.
“You’d think we bombed them,” said Garry Moore, senior adviser with the foreign affairs office in Ottawa.
“There has been a small intermingling of GM canola through no fault of the company’s and it’s created an unholy uproar.”
Moore said he is amazed at the attention generated by the news that canola originating in Canada and now grown in Europe contains trace amounts of genes from Roundup Ready canola.
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Dale Adolphe, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said it’s difficult for North Americans to understand the European reaction over the same canola that is made into margarine, which Canadians spread on their toast each morning.
“There is a sensitivity in Europe we can’t understand in North America,” Adolphe said.
“It’s a miniscule level of GM canola in a non-GM canola.”
Tests showed Advanta’s Hyola hybrid canola had .4 percent contamination from Roundup Ready canola.
Adolphe said it’s not a food safety or food security issue, but rather the fact that GM canola was found in Europe where it’s not allowed.
“They’re being told something that hasn’t been approved in Europe has been found in Europe. It comes down to credibility and trust.”
GM not allowed
Howard Morris, general manager of Advanta Seeds Canada, said the three varieties of hybrid canola were grown in four European countries as part of its routine business. While GM canola is not allowed in European countries, traditional canola can be grown.
The canola in question, Hyola 38, Hyola 330 and Hyola 401, originated on the Prairies, possibly in the irrigation district around Lethbridge in southern Alberta where the company grows a lot of seed.
Morris said the company is not sure how Roundup Ready genes migrated to the hybrid canola, but it suspects the pollen came from nearby fields of genetically modified canola by wind or bees.
Scientists don’t deny that cross pollination will occur within varieties of canola, but they say buffer zones between different types of canola can help avoid contamination.
The company “met or exceeded” the Canadian Seed Growers Association’s recommended 800 metre buffer zone for hybrid canola, Morris said.
More than 60 percent of canola grown on the Prairies is herbicide tolerant. The majority of that has been genetically modified.
Morris said that with the large number of acres of GM canola on the Prairies, it’s not surprising some made it to the hybrid varieties despite the large buffer zones.
Governments need to work together to set realistic tolerances for contamination, he added.
“Having zero tolerance is not workable.”
Get real
Prime minister Jean ChrŽtien and other government officials have for years been calling for reasonable tolerance levels for GM food, Moore said, but extensive environmental lobbying has paralyzed efforts to write realistic rules.
“The regulatory system basically is broken.”
He said that because there are no tolerance levels in place, a tiny amount is seen as a serious contamination.
But Europeans come by their mistrust honestly, Moore added. There have been recent cases of people who have died from contaminated food when they were told it was safe.
Mad cow disease caused a panic in Britain in the mid-1990s, trichinosis was found in France in 1984, and 80 people died in 1983, when the Spanish were sold tainted industrial rapeseed.
“The European consumers are so nervous.”
He said many of them equate genetically modified technology with bad science that has led to food safety problems in the past.
It’s difficult for Canadians with some of the safest food in the world to comprehend the reaction, he added.
“It’s not a food safety issue. It’s a political issue.”
