Fortunately for Western Canada, there are few common elements between the tale of CDC Triffid and the plot of the science fiction classic Day of the Triffids.
In the 1951 book, scientists extract a new oil from alien triffid plants until a comet strikes people blind and the triffids start to take over.
CDC Triffid, the world’s first transgenic flax variety, has more humble origins.
Scientists at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre added a gene from thrale cress to Norlin flax to create a new variety resistant to a common class of cereal herbicides.
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Several years ago, Triffid was brought forward for registration, and Value-Added Seeds got the marketing rights, said company president John Allen.
Pedigreed seed growers who own the company started multiplying the seed, expecting to launch it this spring.
Grower Robert Small of Agritel Grain Ltd. in Beausejour. Man., was looking forward to introducing his customers to Triffid.
Unlike other flax varieties, Small said Triffid thrives in soil containing residues from sulfonylurea-type herbicides like Refine Extra and Glean.
He said the same family of chemicals can be used on Triffid, providing new options for weed control and rotation.
Hit brick wall
But last spring, what seemed like a routine approval process for the transgenic crop with the European Union began to show signs of turning into mission impossible.
The EU wasn’t moving on applications for permission to export transgenic canola.
Last May, people in the flax industry met and decided that if European approvals for transgenic flax were delayed, they would keep Triffid separate from other flax in the handling system using an identity-preserved program.
But by fall, political heat in the EU over genetically modified crops had boiled over. Canadian canola was shut out of the continent because of transgenics.
An identity preserved program “would give us, we thought, pretty good control, but not the 100 percent control that the exporters were telling us that their customers in Europe were going to demand,” said Allen.
After months of intense discussion, the industry agreed to keep Triffid out of the commercial system.
“When it started, people felt generally that this was the way of the future and this would fit in,” said Donald Frith, president of the Flax Council of Canada.
“But unfortunately, politics got involved, and we both know when politics get involved, all the bets are off.”
Value-Added Seeds made arrange-ments for the seed to be sold to Canadian and American crushers that would sell the resulting oil and meal only in North America.
Fortunately for growers, flax prices have been strong. But when freight charges were subtracted, they didn’t achieve the certified seed price of $12 to $16 per bushel.
The isolation, inspection and special handling requirements of the certified seed system make certified seed more valuable than commercial seed.
Allen estimates more than 90 percent of Triffid seed will end up with crushers. But some growers are holding on to some of the seed in hopes the EU will soon approve Triffid, said Allen. They agreed to add grain confetti to the flax to make sure it doesn’t accidentally get into commercial systems.
There’s a lesson to be learned from the story of CDC Triffid, said Allen.
“If our customer’s customer’s customer doesn’t want what we’re growing, then we’re going to have a tough time making a living growing that thing,” he said.
