As Saskatchewan organic growers prepare for the second round of a legal battle with biotech companies over the introduction of genetically modified canola, they continue to keep a watchful eye on another GM crop.
“I see GMO alfalfa as big a threat to organic agriculture as GMO wheat was,” Arnold Taylor, member of the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate’s Organic Agriculture Protection Fund committee, told delegates attending the 2006 Organic Connections conference.
SOD is attempting to launch a class-action lawsuit against the developers of GM canola for the alleged damage their crops caused the organic industry.
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Their first stab at having the case certified as a class action was thwarted by the Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon. An appeal of that decision is scheduled for Dec. 11-12 in Regina.
In the meantime, the group is monitoring the progress of GM alfalfa, a crop it contends poses an even bigger threat to the organic industry.
The commercial release of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa in the United States and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s approval for the unconfined release of the crop in Canada has made SOD officials nervous.
“Alfalfa is in every ditch right across the country. There is no way of controlling it,” said Taylor.
But Monsanto Canada spokesperson Trish Jordan said the concerns are misplaced.
“We have no firm plans to commercialize Roundup Ready alfalfa in Canada,” she said.
There has been no overwhelming pull from the Canadian market for the company’s herbicide-tolerant alfalfa. If the demand suddenly arose, the company would still be years away from commercialization due to the requirement to conduct variety registration and herbicide label trials.
Jordan noted there have been 291 biotech alfalfa trials conducted in Canada since 1998, only one of which involved Monsanto’s crop, yet Roundup Ready alfalfa continues to be the focal point of concern.
Taylor said that is because the product has been commercially released south of the border, where it has about a three percent share of the alfalfa market.
Saskatchewan organic growers worry that if the crop was released in Canada, it would threaten the ability of livestock producers to grow or buy GMO-free hay or pellets and damage markets for organic alfalfa seed.
And it would take away one of the most effective plow-down crops organic growers have in their arsenal.
“We won’t be able to use alfalfa as a soil-building crop, which is a horrendous loss for the organic sector,” said Taylor.
Jordan said that hasn’t been the experience in the U.S., where Roundup Ready alfalfa is coexisting with organic alfalfa.
“To the best of my knowledge there has been absolutely no issues,” she said.
Those assurances don’t appease Taylor, who threatened legal action if Monsanto decides to take the next step with its herbicide-tolerant alfalfa in Canada.
“If they do get to the point where they’re going to try to release it, we’ll try to come up with some kind of injunction,” he said.
SOD was pursuing a similar course of action with Roundup Ready wheat before Monsanto voluntarily withdrew its application for regulatory approval of the product on June 21, 2004.
