THUNDER BAY, Ont. – Canadian farm leaders tip-toed gingerly into the thicket of a controversial question – the question of life – when they met in late July.
Should companies or scientists be able to patent life forms created from genetic manipulation?
In the end, leaders of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture decided their organization should keep investigating the implications and then develop a policy.
But getting to even that first step often caused some of the CFA board members to squirm. Several said they felt uncomfortable debating something about which they knew so little.
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The farmer debate about life patenting never once touched on the ethics or moral issues of life patenting that have tied some theologians and philosophers in knots.
Instead, it was a discussion about trade, competition and market advantage, since the United States allows patenting of newly created life forms.
“If the U.S. permits a patent for a genetically modified hog but Canada does not, Canada may have to use control measures at the border, thus establishing a non-tariff technical barrier to trade,” said CFA policy analyst Garth Sundeen in a paper prepared for delegates to the CFA summer board meeting.
In his address to the meeting, Sundeen said there would be animal rights issues to be considered at some point, but the main issue is competition and trade.
“The issue is: do Canadians want to have access to such genetically altered products?” he asked.
Delegates were not certain and Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Tony Morris suggested it may become an issue of power and growing farmer disadvantage.
Allowing private companies to patent the genetically altered animal or plant creations “could be giving private companies more power over the food system,” he said.
Sundeen said the Canadian debate on the issue will gather steam within the next year and farmers have a stake in deciding where they stand.
He noted Canada has denied an application to grant a patent for a mouse created through genetic manipulation at Harvard University in Boston. It has been patented in the United States.
Canada’s decision is being challenged in court in November by those who tried to patent the “onco-mouse” in Canada.
The CFA debate was held the day Scottish scientists, famous for their earlier success at cloning the adult sheep Dolly, announced they had produced a lamb, Polly, which contains a human gene.
Ethical questions
In a background paper, Sundeen noted that a spokesperson for the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies has voiced concerns about genetic alteration in animals which make them better producers of protein or other products valued by humans but does not improve the welfare of animals.
“In her view, using animals in such a manner denies their intrinsic value,” he wrote.
