Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief says the biotechnology revolution could be the agricultural breakthrough of the 21st century that the development of Marquis wheat was in the 20th century.
He told an Ottawa biotechnology conference on Dec. 5 that farmers in the future will produce as much medicine and industrial products as they do food.
“The land has always fed us,” he said.
“Thanks to the bio-revolution, what the land can now produce is limited only by our knowledge and our determination. Perhaps someone here today is on the cusp of a history-changing innovation of the magnitude of Marquis wheat.”
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Since last summer, the minister has been preaching the gospel of biotechnology as an answer to farmers’ prayers and a new lifeline for the agricultural sector.
Vanclief returned to the science theme in his first public speech since an election campaign in which the farm lobby tried to focus political minds on the need for enriched farm aid.
“It will provide farmers with options for diversifying into new realms, leading to new markets and reducing their reliance on the production of commodities for food alone. It will be a powerful magnet for investment.”
The minister also saw biotechnology as a way to increase food safety, despite the fact that the early products of the science – genetically modified food – have become the target of health and environmental activists who insist that food containing genetically modified organisms is potentially harmful.
Vanclief said biotechnology can be used to create better vaccines and better food testing systems.
He said the government’s decision to invest $2.4 billion in the Canada Foundation for Innovation and $900 million to fund 2,000 university research chairs will help encourage the biotech industry to grow in Canada.
So will a system of generous tax breaks to companies investing in the new technology.
