Date accessed: 23 May 2001
COLIN FREEZE
INVESTIGATIONS UNIT; Source: Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Monday, May 21, 2001
Globe and Mail
At 56 research sites across the Prairies this year, Canada will grow wheat that most of the world does not want.
Biotech giant Monsanto Canada, with some help from Canadian taxpayers, is genetically modifying a wheat so the altered crop will tolerate harsh chemicals intended to kill weeds. The firm hopes the product, now in controlled field tests, will improve yields and profits.
But if it were approved and put on the market today or anytime soon, it could jeopardize Canada's multibillion-dollar-a-year wheat industry, wheat growers, federal government scientists and even Monsanto Canada acknowledge.
"Our analysis shows that farmers could lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost markets if this is mismanaged," Patty Rosher, a spokeswoman with the Canadian Wheat Board, said.
Two-thirds of Canada's export markets, from Europe to Japan to North America, have made it clear they don't want genetically altered wheat, she said.
"The millers that buy grain from us have said to us, 'Do not even think about trying to sell us this kind of stuff.' "
Unlike modified crops such as canola, soya beans and corn -- which Canada and
other countries grow, sell and eat -- no country has approved genetically
altered wheat.
And since modified canola was first marketed, concerns have mounted around the
world about genetically modified foods.
There is a vast and polarized debate about whether such crops are dangerous. The United States and Canada -- the world's largest and third-largest genetically altered crop producers -- have embraced the genetic technology. Many European countries are more wary, having banned food imports and put package-labelling schemes in place.
One danger is that allergens could be transplanted with genes, as was once the case when scientists transferred DNA from a Brazil nut to a soya bean. Another is that altered genes could run amok in the environment, escaping through cross pollination, creating superweeds or contaminated food.
Regulators here say they've been successful in preventing such harmful scenarios from arising, and point out that thousands of modified crops have sprouted in Canada for more than a decade.
Wheat has not been singled out as particularly dangerous. But foods with gene sequences that nature never thought to stitch together are the subject of mounting concerns the world over, causing resistance to new products.
With wheat, now entering its third year of research trials, there's a fear that should it be sold, Canadian grain handlers would mix modified versions with non-modified ones, spoiling demand for the entire supply. People don't have faith that grain-handling facilities would keep them strictly separate.
Monsanto vows not to put the product on the market before people want to buy it. It estimates that fears should be allayed by 2003-2005, the current target dates to start selling so-called Roundup Ready wheat to farmers who use Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.
"It's easy for people to say no one wants it," Trish Jordan, a spokeswoman for Monsanto Canada, said. "But we know different because we're already having discussions with people."
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which regulates experiments with genetically modified grains, this year, Monsanto's wheat will account for more than one in every five confined field trials of "plants with novel traits."
Critics question Canada's role in pushing the genetically modified wheat forward. Agriculture Canada labs and scientists are helping Monsanto develop the wheat, through a program that matches corporate dollars with taxpayer money and promises to protect corporate trade secrets. In addition to funding the experiments, the Agriculture Department will oversee the regulation of the crop.
"It's so bizarre that in Canada -- that has prided itself on growing wheat that the world wants -- would consider infecting that wheat with a gene that provides no benefit and threatens the marketability of the crop," Martin Entz, a plant science professor at the University of Manitoba, said.
He challenges Monsanto's claim that the engineered wheat is superior to current crops, and argues that politicians have to create laws to block commercialization.
"The research trials are all part of taking the genie out of the bottle," said Mr. Entz, whose office is located just metres away from where some of the wheat research is taking place.
Jim Bole, the director of Agriculture Canada's cereal research centre, said he doesn't want to make light of public concerns over genetically modified food, but "I hope there will be a time when we laugh about the public concerns about it." He adds Canadian taxpayers have a definite interest in funding biotechnology experiments today, even as other countries are worried about the crops.
"Ten years from now, that's the way we're going to be doing plant breeding, so we want to be in position to maximize the opportunities from this type of technology," Mr. Bole said. Already, Canada's trade in modified crops is huge -- including Roundup Ready Canola varieties. Although most Canadian Canola is genetically altered, growers here say world demand is increasing -- even though some government export documents lament lost markets in Europe.
Investigations@globeandmail.ca
Who's growing crops in my backyard?
Numbers of authorized field trials of crops with novel traits* for the 2001
growing season in Canada
Ontario Saskatchewan Alberta Manitoba Quebec Canola 12 16(3) 11 6(3) - Corn 18(8) - - - 3(3) Alfalfa 52 10 - - - Tobacco 5 - - - - White clover 4 - - - - Lentils - 8 4 3 - Wheat - 21(19) 19(19) 19(18) - Brown mustard - 22 2 1 - Potato - 6 - - - Monococum - 2 - - - Safflower - - 3 - - Sugar beat - - 2 - - Total 91 85 41 29 3
Monsanto crops - ()
-*Novel traits may be produced by conventional breeding, mutagenesis or, more
commonly, by recombinant DNA techniques.
-**
Key companies by share of authorized field trials
Monsanto Canada Inc 72 University of Guelph 56 Agriculture Canada 19 BASF Canada Inc 19 Saskatchewan. Wheat Pool 19 University of Saskatchewan 12 Other 52
Category: 24. Monsanto, 29. GMOs