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SCIENCE: Canada’s GM Crops Sprout Problems, Says U.K. MP

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Aug 7 2003 (IPS) - Former U.K. Environment Minister Michael Meacher toured Canadian farms recently to witness problems with genetically modified (GM) crops that might serve as cautionary tales for other countries.

The long-time Labour MP, who lost his post in a cabinet shuffle last June after complaining publicly about the government’s environmental policies, wants to delay the introduction of GM crops in Britain until more health and environmental safety studies are done and stronger safeguards put in place.

The U.K. Parliament is scheduled to decide on GM crops later this year.

"Genetic contamination by GM seed and pollen is a very serious issue in Canada," Meacher told IPS.

"Pollen and seed in windstorms can travel for miles and there’s no way to ensure organic farmers are protected."

Organic canola (oilseed rape) can no longer be grown in western Canada because of GM contamination, he said. And there is great fear among the farming community over what will happen when Monsanto’s new GM wheat is released in the next year or two.

All non-GM canola seed in Canada now contains some GM in its germplasm due to cross-pollination and seed mix-ups over the past eight years. GM canola plants now grow as weeds everywhere, including in fields of organic farms.

Monsanto has applied to the federal government in Ottawa for approval to sell GM wheat seeds to farmers. The government is reviewing the application, including data on yields, and is expected to decide early in 2004.

Canada’s federal and provincial governments have had a long love affair with biotechnology, pumping billions of dollars into the industry since the early 1980s.

But as regulator of GM crops and an industry booster – its genetic engineers worked alongside Monsanto researchers on the GM wheat file – Ottawa is in a conflict of interest position, say many critics.

Meacher’s four-day visit to Canada was sponsored by the U.K.-based Soil Association, an NGO that promotes organic foods and farming.

The politician says that insurance is just one of the safeguards required by farmers who work alongside GM crops. Canadian growers whose crops or lands get contaminated receive no compensation, even if they lose important markets as a direct result says Meacher.

"Seed companies like Monsanto should pay for the damage they cause," he asserts.

No jurisdictions in the world have liability provisions for GM contamination, and the EU should not lift its moratorium on GM crops until there is one, Meacher adds.

According to him, that is only one of the issues countries should consider before growing GM crops.

Another is that the Canadian experience shows there is little benefit to farmers – yields are lower and growers must use more herbicide, farmers in western Canada’s grain belt told Meacher. "Farmers there, who were initially in favour of the new crops in 1996, have now turned against it."

GM seeds cost 35 percent more and require near-perfect growing conditions, says Charles Benbrook of Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center, an agricultural research consultancy in Sandpoint, Idaho.

"Crops are engineered to work with specific herbicides; the wrong herbicide can ruin an entire crop," Benbrook, former executive director of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Agriculture and an ex-sheep farmer, told IPS.

This can be a problem in Africa, where pesticides are often mislabelled, sold in unmarked containers or handled by people who cannot read, he says.

Growing GM crops, such as maize, would also contaminate local maize varieties and likely create some unexpected and, under certain circumstances damaging, growth problems. It would also endanger exports to Europe and Japan, adds the researcher.

A final concern is that GM maize was designed to be fed to animals. If this maize were to provide as much as one-half or two-thirds of daily food needs – as the crop does now in some African countries, U.S. government regulators "would never have approved it based on the human safety data presented at the time", says Benbrook.

Meacher agrees, and says that despite the U.K. government’s pro-GM stance, its own scientific review panel determined last month that there had been no health testing nor enough information disseminated about the possible environmental impacts of GM crops..

"Science says there are many unanswered questions around GM crops; the vast majority of people are opposed to eating them, and yet more and more are planted each year. It’s a serious challenge to democracy," says Meacher.

He calls the attempt by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to send GM products to Africa as food aid during last year’s famine "iniquitous and immoral". Washington had plenty of non-GM food but chose to use politics to try and force GM foods on starving countries he said.

"Now the Bush administration is saying that if Africa wants funding for HIV/AID then they’ve got to take GM food. It’s an absolutely blatant attempt to force African nations in dire straits to take GM."

"If it’s such a cracking good technology let Africa decide for itself," Meacher added.