Canadians urged to swamp prime minister with bread /

[Guest guest]

Don't remember if someone posted this already...Mary O

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"Monsanto Canada has asked the federal government to allow yet another genetically modified (GM) food crop to be grown in this country. If politicians in Ottawa go along with the scheme, our food supply, our drinking water, the environment and more than 85 percent of $4 billion in annual wheat exports are under threat.The Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the National Farmers Union are all adamantly opposed to the introduction of genetically modified bread wheat, mostly because customers in Asia and Europe will not buy it. The new strain manipulates the DNA of the most widely grown variety of bread wheat to make it resistant to glyphosate or Roundup, Monsanto's leading weed killer, which accounts for 40 percent of the company's sales. Monsanto of course also controls sale of seed. The idea is to spray more weed killer on the wheat, which is now more resistant to it, killing more weeds but also putting more chemicals in our diet and environment.A study by eminent oncologists Dr. Lennart Hardell and Dr. Mikael Eriksson of Sweden has revealed clear links between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer. The study was published in the March 15, 1999 issue of the Journal of the American Cancer Society. In many parts of Canada, especially Ontario, a large percentage of water wells are contaminated with glyphosate.The uproar over Roundup resistant wheat is rare for Canada. Consumers have unknowingly eaten food with ingredients from genetically modified organisms (GMO) for years because unlike Europe, there is no labelling requirement here. More than 80 percent of canola grown in Canada is genetically modified. China recently placed severe import restrictions on GM canola, wiping out most of Canada's $340 million export market to that country.Concerns about GM wheat have been building for three years as scientists tended the first trial crops at secret test stations across the prairies. Doubts rose sharply this year when Monsanto applied for Canadian government approval to launch commercial production. It did this after promising to withhold Roundup resistant wheat until Europe comes around to GM crops. The Canadian Wheat Board has asked Monsanto to withdraw the crop. It refused, and the wheat board is now lobbying the Canadian government to take into account commercial considerations - as well as health and environmental implications - when it makes its decision. A legal challenge may be next. Europe's ban on most GMO products would force Canada to segregate conventional wheat from the Roundup resistant variety. It is unlikely that Canada's aging storage and transport system can offer such guarantees and it would lose its reputation for high quality wheat. Roundup resistant canola is found almost everywhere in Canada due to Monsanto's marketing methods, to genetic drift from pollen and from dropped seed contaminating non-GM varieties. (For a story on how GM canola is destroying a Saskatchewan farm see www.percyschmeiser.com)The introduction of GM wheat could also disrupt the entire system of agriculture in the arid region of western Canada where farmers limit tilling of the soil to prevent erosion and save water. Such techniques would be rendered ineffective if GM wheat enters production alongside its canola equivalent, upsetting traditional fallowing and rotation of crops and forcing farmers to turn to different herbicides. When seeds are inevitably dropped during harvest, they sprout the following year as herbicide resistant 'weeds,' now mixed in with a different crop or sucking moisture from a fallowed field.The next time there is a severe drought in western Canada, an impact will be felt, and many will lose their farms. Such dangers have yet to fully dawn on farmers, but the warnings are clear enough to convince them it is not worth trying to persuade Europe to change its mind on GM wheat. The Canadian government spent the last seven years trying to convince consumers in Europe that GM canola is safe and made no headway. It is easier not to grow something that the marketplace rejects than to convince the consumer that it is safe. www.producer.com/articles/20030703/ news/20030703news 04.html

 

 

 

 

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