ADAPTABLE AND STRONG
Re: Article on science commitments at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sept. 26.
AAFC has a 127 year history of scientific achievement and we continue to drive leading-edge scientific discovery in everything from fusarium resistance to biopesticides.
The change of direction you cite is not in our commitment but in our focus. AAFC remains the biggest single player in agricultural research in the country.
We have increased the science envelope under Growing Forward 2 by 40 percent and our cost-shared investments with the provinces and territories by 50 percent.
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At the same time, the fast-changing agricultural industry is influencing government’s involvement and investment throughout the innovation continuum. So we are focusing on core research where we have a critical mass and the government has a clear role and adds value.
At the same time, we are supporting industry in playing a greater role at later stages in the innovation process where they can best determine what will contribute to the ongoing economic success of their sectors. And we are helping them jump that last hurdle to get good ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace.
We will continue to maintain a strong network of research centres and offices as well as world-class scientific expertise across the country to meet industry needs. At the same time, we are consolidating activities in fewer sites in order to concentrate our resources on the science rather than maintaining aging infrastructure.
Everyone agrees collaboration is the way forward. That’s why under the $700 million federal AgriInnovation Program, the industry-led research clusters are leveraging our scientific expertise with universities and industry to move the industry forward in a range of sectors.
For example, the $97 million Canadian Wheat Alliance, a collaboration between AAFC, the National Research Council, the University of Saskatchewan and the province of Saskatchewan, is working to increase wheat yields by an estimated 10 bushels an acre over the next five years.
The Government of Canada and AAFC continue to look to science to bring real results for our farmers, consumers and the economy.
I’m proud of the work that our science team continues to deliver every day. And I’m confident that AAFC will remain adaptable and strong as we carry out our mandate in support of a sector that is vital to the economic and social well being of Canadians.
Suzanne Vinet, deputy minister,
Agriculture Canada,
Ottawa, Ont.
STILL NO RESPONSE
In a news release dated Aug. 14, the government of Saskatchewan launched a public review of the Surface Rights Acquisition and Compensation Act.
In that news release, energy and resources minister Tim McMillan states: “We believe that Saskatchewan landowners and the oil and gas industry deserve to operate under an efficient and effective system that respects everyone’s property rights.”
Yes, Mr. McMillan, that is all the mineral rights owners in the Rocanville Potash Restricted Drill Area are wanting.
Our mineral rights in this zone are now worthless, with no compensation since 1995, unlike the oil and gas companies that were given crown leases around the Swift Current area in lieu of the leases they held in the no drill zone at the time the law was enacted. I don’t believe that that in any way “respects everyone’s property rights.”
It is way past time that the potash industry and the provincial government sit down with the Rocanville PRDA Committee, who represent approximately 190 freeholders, and come up with a fair and equitable compensation package for both sides that will “respect everyone’s property rights.”
Dennis Hack,
BALANCE SOIL NUTRIENTS
Yield equals genetic potential minus stress. Crops routinely achieve less than 30 percent of their genetic yield potential.
The main stress is out of proportion soil nutrients, creating non-ideal growing conditions for food crops. Manipulating genetics is not a substitute for nutrition.
Genetic modification in its multiple forms of food crops does not provide the required nutrients and co-factors required for enzyme function in digestive and metabolic systems. The animal/human consuming GM material experiences inflammation, due to immune system/allergic reactions, incomplete digestion of food, impaired organ function, organ stress and genetic damage-inconsistent cell reproduction. Only food grown on nutritionally balanced soil can meet the demands of an animal-human.
If you believe technology can create a healthy organism, you probably also believe technology will cure cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arteriosclerosis, autism, allergies and depression. Technology will not cure a problem; it is only capable of treating symptoms.
Illness is a function of trans-generational nutrition and chemical-electromagnetic interference. It will take generations of nutritionally correct living to correct genetic damage from years of trans-generational malnutrition and chemical-electromagnetic interference.
The secret to nourishing nine billion people by 2050 is in the soil, not in genetics.
Garrett Osborn,
Big Beaver, Sask.
