ENVIRONMENT: Farmers Sue Biotech Giants over Gene Pollution

By Stephen Leahy Reprint | | Print |

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Ontario, Jan 24 2002 (IPS) - Canada’s booming organic industry is under attack from ‘gene pollution’, say farmers.

Seed and pollen from genetically modified (GM) plant varieties – oilseed rape in particular – has spread to neighbouring farms, wildlife areas, and roadside verges throughout Canada’s prairie provinces.

The implications for developing countries could be profound, according to the German-based International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

About one-fourth of IFOAM’s 730 member organisations are in the developing world and the federation is concerned that introducing GM crops will not only hurt organic farmers but threaten local agricultural varieties that have been selected and bred for unique climatic zones and regional properties. Recent reports of genetic contamination of Mexico’s native maize in the southern state of Oaxaca, the birthplace of maize, represent a dramatic case in point.

Recent studies show escaped rapeseed has become Canada’s 13th worst weed, according to John Culley, Western Canada research director at Agriculture Canada, the government farming agency.

“We set a gap of 800 metres between GM rapeseed and other crops but our research has shown that is not enough. The rate of spread is quite low but since more than half of our rapeseed crop is transgenic that means a lot of seeds are getting into places that they shouldn’t,” said Culley.

About 61 percent of Canada’s four million hectares of oilseed rape is planted in genetically modified varieties that are herbicide tolerant (HT). Oilseed rape or Canola, as it is known in Canada – is used mainly to produce processed food ingredients, cooking oils, and livestock feed.

“We’ve lost the organic canola market,” said Mark Loiselle, an organic grower with nearly 567 hectares in Vonda, in the central province of Saskatchewan.

If GM plants are found in an organic grower’s crops they can no longer claim organic status and so may lose their livelihoods. Canada’s organic sector had been growing at 30 per cent annually.

Last year, organic oilseed rape paid 12 dollars per bushel more than non-organic; Loiselle would dearly like to supply this market. “I thought biotech crops would be OK if it meant less pesticides but that’s not the way its working,” he said. “All we have is something that benefits the seed and chemical companies.”

“It certainly is a challenge to grow organic canola” because of the movement of pollen and seeds, agreed Hugh Beckie, a scientist at Agriculture Canada’s Saskatoon Research Centre. “It’s well documented that canola has a 20 to 30 percent outcrossing rate.”

Early this year, two Saskatchewan organic farmers filed a class action lawsuit against biotech giants Monsanto Co. and Aventis SA on behalf of the more than 1,000 organic farmers whose farms represent about 405,700 hectares in the province.

The legal action seeks compensation for damages caused by the GM rapeseed and pollen the plaintiffs say is blowing into their fields. The lawsuit also aims to halt plans to introduce GM wheat in the region.

Monsanto, which produces the widely used GM rape varieties called Roundup Ready, planted Roundup Ready wheat in test plots across western Canada last year. More than 75 percent of western Canada’s thriving organic industry grows organic wheat – much of it for export to GM-phobic Europe.

Wally Hamm, head of Pro-Cert Canada, which represents many of the country’s organic growers, said rogue GM rapeseed had become a “tremendous weed”.

He added: “Last year’s contamination meant we’ve lost the organic rapeseed market and the organic honey market and now we could lose the wheat market too.”

Monsanto has repeatedly said it would not move forward with GM wheat until all regulatory and stewardship concerns have been met. Neither Monsanto nor Aventis would comment on the organic lawsuit.

If the organic farmers win their case, it would create a huge precedent by attaching liability to the producers of GM technology, according to University of Saskatchewan law professor Martin Phillipson.

That might also help another Saskatchewan farmer, Bruno Schmeiser, who was found guilty of growing Monsanto’s Roundup Ready rape without a licence. Schmeiser claimed that the GM seed and pollen had blown onto his farm and has appealed his conviction.

U.S. organic growers also are finding their maize, including seeds, contaminated with detectable levels of genetically engineered DNA, according to IFOAM, which has members in 103 countries.

“Those who claim ownership rights to these genes should be held liable for their uncontrolled spread in the environment and into our food,” Gunnar Rundgren, IFOAM president, said in a statement.

“This is more evidence that GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are polluting the environment in a way that is outside the control of society or the companies that have released these GMOs, and we are outraged. It means that consumers could soon be deprived of their right to choose GMO-free food, if this unwanted spread of genetically altered genes is not stopped,” Rundgren stated.

Unless action is taken immediately, it may soon be impossible to produce uncontaminated organic corn crops in the United States and Canada. This is equally true for conventional farmers who want to produce corn without GMOs, he concluded.