- A secret briefing to the Canadian government has warned
that the country's massive food exports are at risk from its continued
use of GM crops.
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- The paper, which has been obtained under the Access of
Information Act, warns the cabinet of the "pressing need to immediately
address these concerns".
-
- Such fears contrast with the government's repeated endorsement
of GM crops and technology as a great opportunity for Canada.
-
- The paper, which was drafted by a senior civil servant,
says that "producers are becoming worried about losing markets and
losing choice over what they produce", while consumers are becoming
more worried that they cannot distinguish between GM and non-GM products.
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- "These concerns could precipitate a loss of confidence
in the integrity of the Canadian food system, which could be very disruptive
to the domestic system as well as Canada's ability to export to demanding
markets."
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- Some pages of the secret document, which have been blanked
out, concern advice on how to deal with the growing public fears and the
potential loss of further export markets for Canadian goods.
-
- Canada is the third-largest producer of GM crops after
the US and Argentina. But the paper says that the production of GM canola
(oilseed rape) is affecting the value of non- GM canola in some markets.
It says: "The EU was effectively closed to all Canadian commodity
canola."
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- The Canadian farmers' greatest fear, however, is the
introduction of GM wheat, of which trials are imminent.
-
- The Canadian Wheat Board has just surveyed its overseas
customers in Europe, Japan and the US, with 82% saying that they would
not take GM wheat. The export market for milling wheat into bread is worth
£2bn a year to Canada.
-
- The paper says that large Canadian producers in other
fields have already taken defensive action. Flax producers, for instance,
will not produce a GM version, while the largest potato processor, McCains,
has declared it will not purchase GM potatoes. Jim Robbins, a farmer and
business consultant for the Canadian National Farmers Union said that large
exports of oilseed rape had been lost to Europe as it was impossible to
separate GM and conventional crops. In Canada, they had all been mixed
together.
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- Cross contamination, it said, was now "irreversible".
-
- Canadian farmers feared the same would happen with wheat,
prompting a loss of exports and a crash in prices.
-
- "I cannot see how it would be possible to separate
GM wheat and non-GM wheat," Mr Robbins said. "It is also very
difficult, not to say impossible, as we have discovered with canola, to
prevent the spread of GM canola plants into conventional crops."
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- He said the Canadian government's problem involves the
lack of legal regulation to thwart the introduction of GM wheat, prompting
the potential for contamination of conventional crops.
-
- Mr Robbins believes fears for the environment could be
a useful defence, pointing out that if GM wheat - basically a grass - escaped
into the Canadian countryside it might become an extremely difficult weed
to eradicate because it would be herbicide resistant.
-
- He said: "That might provide an escape route for
Canada, like the GM field trials have in Britain."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1083640,00.html
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