Organic growers say incidents like the recent genetically modified canola seed debacle are crushing their industry.
“The ramifications are extremely negative and serious,” said grower Stewart Wells, who is also the Saskatchewan director of the National Farmers Union.
He is referring to the May 17 discovery that farmers in several European Union countries were unwittingly growing crops from Canadian canola that contained small amounts of genetically modified material.
The Hyola hybrid canola seed shipped by Advanta Seeds Canada to four European countries contained 0.4 percent Roundup Ready canola.
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Advanta said the Roundup Ready genes must have migrated to their hybrid canola fields on pollen carried by wind or bees, which originated from nearby plots of genetically modified canola.
“The whole issue of genetic pollution is one of the only things that can seriously damage the organic movement – if not kill it,” said Wells.
“It has already infringed on my livelihood.”
Wells won’t grow organic canola on his farm despite strong demand for the product because he considers it too risky. He could lose his organic certification if any trace of GM material was found in a shipment of organic canola originating from his farm.
Restrictions in place
Craig Evans, Monsanto Canada Inc.’s general manager of biotechnology, said GM crops do not hamper organic production.
He said regulations like adequate buffer zones and cleaning techniques are in place to ensure organic producers can maintain seed purity, adding that producers receive price premiums for complying with those regulations.
“They’re compensating you for the isolation distance and the things like that.”
Neil Strayer is an organic grower and trader and a Canadian organic pioneer. He said GM canola has taken one of the Prairie’s biggest crops out of the rotation for organic farmers.
“It has seriously damaged the potential for the canola market to develop for us, which we were just getting finally established. It has killed that in short order,” said Strayer.
“(Producers) are leaving canola in droves. The acreage is going to drop to next to nothing this year and that’s a tragedy because canola could have been a good potential.”
He said growers were doing good business with organic canola a few years ago, but progress has come to a halt because organic buyers aren’t interested in purchasing product that could be affected by cross-pollination.
“To quarantine a region is very difficult to do.”
What Strayer fears most is the research being done on GM wheat and durum.
“If it came to wheat I don’t know what the hell we’d do because we’re wall to wall wheat out here. You know what, it would probably kill the market if it were happening today,” said the farmer from Drinkwater, Sask.
Evans said Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat could be commercially available by the 2003-2004 crop year. But it will be several years after that before significant volumes of seed could be produced.
