For the first time since the introduction of genetically modified crops, a set of international guidelines is in place that should pave the way for reasonable tolerance levels, says a Canadian grain industry executive.
“It’s a very big deal,” said Dennis Stephens, consultant with the Canada Grains Council, which promotes the sale of Canadian grain around the world.
The guidelines should remove some risk associated with the international grain trade and will help address food security issues that have garnered much press in recent months due to rising food prices.
Read Also
U.S. government investigates high input costs
The USDA and DOJ are investigating high input costs, but nothing is happening in Canada.
On July 1, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a United Nations body that develops international food standards and guidelines, approved a draft annex that provides importing nations with a set of guidelines for dealing with GM contamination incidents.
Stephens described it as an important new tool for allowing countries to conduct a risk assessment of biotechnology events authorized in one or more countries but not in the country of import.
“At the present time all of those countries have a zero threshold for such events.”
Since zero is impossible to attain, grain exporters have lived in fear of their cargos being refused or destroyed upon arrival.
“It currently is causing significant disruptions to international trade,” said Stephens.
“Here is a process that is now in place that could be used to minimize those potential disruptions.”
Importers will be able to consult a vast United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization database providing them with all the information they need to perform a low-level contamination risk assessment.
Stephens feels the new Codex guidelines will facilitate grain trade by reducing the risk involved in international shipments. It comes at a critical time given the global food security crisis.
There is a growing need to move commodities from countries of surplus to ones of deficit but trade is being blocked by the zero tolerance approach to GM contamination.
“It’s impossible to achieve and therefore no exporter would willingly ship that commodity to that country,” he said.
Eric Darier, agriculture campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, believes the work happening at Codex is “very much linked” to what is going on with another arm of the United Nations.
Earlier this year, the 147 governments that ratified the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety tried but failed to establish a liability regime for GM crops. The group has given itself two more years to develop such a regime, which would likely entail establishing tolerance levels.
Darier said exporting nations like Canada and the United States that haven’t signed the protocol are leery about what they might face down the road.
“They probably feel that they have a better avenue by establishing some kind of international standard at the Codex level,” he said.
Stephens said an international coalition of grain, seed trade, biotechnology and grocery groups will spend the coming months trying to convince importers to use the new voluntary guidelines.
“We’re now moving into a fairly extensive outreach program.”
While the guidelines are “a significant step forward,” they are not the ultimate goal for the coalition. During the outreach program the group will try to encourage importers to develop their own regulatory authorities, paving the way for synchronized approval of GM crops.
