Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Relax the rules governing GMOs



It’s been 15 years since we began widespread planting of genetically-modified crops and they continue to gain popularity with farmers around the world.

Last year about 160 million hectares were planted to varieties whose genes had been somehow altered by the new technologies. That was eight per cent more than the year before.

In all of that 15 years, I have yet to see any documented proof that a single person has been harmed by consuming food prepared from a genetically-modified crop.

I have yet to see documented evidence that any harm has come to the environment.

I have seen evidence, and plenty of it, that production costs have declined, that pesticide use for crops such as cotton has declined significantly and that the profits for farmers have improved, including some of the world’s poorest farmers in countries such as China and India.

So with this track record of costs and benefits, why is the Canadian government continuing to insist on expensive and lengthy research and trials to justify approvals for new genetically-modified varieties?

Do we not know enough about standard genetic technologies being employed in varietal development to grant carte-blanche approvals for the next generation of varieties employing these standard technologies.

Would not the time, effort and expense involved in meeting current GMO clearances not be better invested in addressing some of the well-known high-risk products, such as raw sprouts?

And in another related vein, why is our government granting patents related to plant breeding?

Patent protection, we were told, would bring more money into research and development and both speed up the delivery of improved varieties and increase the number brought to market. Can you see any evidence of that happening?

In fact, we have fewer plant breeders today than 20 years ago, we have fewer new varieties coming to market and we don’t even have the university resources left to teach a new generation of plant  breeders.

One Canadian innovation alone – canola – justifies every penny that has ever been spent by Canadian governments on plant breeding at public institutions. It came to market before GMO regulations and before government-funded plant breeding budgets were slashed to ribbons.

Do you think corporations would have ever bred canola and brought it to market?

Relaxing regulations governing genetically-modified crops and combining that with an offer of personal profits from the sale of improved varieties to plant breeders working at universities and government agriculture institutions might actually yield some tangible benefits for farmers and society.