The federal agriculture minister says the first battle that needs to be waged in the war on biotechnology is with the media, but that skirmish isn’t going so well.
Gerry Ritz is determined to combat the misinformation about the technology that is being spread in big city newspapers across the country.
He spends “a disproportionate amount of time” firing off letters to the editor that often do not get published.
“We’re muzzled. We’re muffled. But somehow we’ve got to come up with a way to get around that,” he told the recent Feeding the Global Middle Class conference in Saskatoon.
Ritz said there has been progress.
“Our farm media is now getting more vocal in that regard,” he said.
Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator with the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, scoffed at the notion that media is stifling pro-biotechnology forces. If anything, it’s the opposite.
“Certainly industry has the money to spend time with editorial boards and send public relations packages to journalists,” she said.
Sharratt said newspapers are full of letters from both sides of the issue, and that’s a good thing.
“There is actually a really dynamic public discussion, which is something we would encourage,” she said.
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Ritz said the agricultural industry has only itself to blame for the growing public backlash against genetically modified crops because it was too slow mounting a defence of the technology.
He said farmers must combat the steady stream of misinformation by spreading the word that GM crops are more sustainable and higher-yielding than conventional crops because that is a message that resonates with the public.
Sharratt said there is misinformation about the technology because the Canadian government refuses to be forthcoming with information on GM crops.
“They don’t label genetically engineered food and they don’t actually even track or monitor what genetically modified crops are in the ground and how much of them there is.”
Ritz also took a shot at anti-GM groups, claiming their motives have nothing to do with food safety concerns.
“It’s a fundraiser. This is all about making money,” he said. “This is what drove two of the founding members of Greenpeace away from Greenpeace.”
Sharratt said Ritz should not question the motives of people who want increased regulation of GM crops.
“There is very genuine public concern about the use of genetic technologies, what they mean for our societies and how they’re being regulated,” she said. “The minister of agriculture should actually recognize these concerns and take them seriously.”
Contact sean.pratt@producer.com
