7-Business: Canadian government closely linked to Monsanto's GE wheat project

[GENET <genetnl@xs4all.be>]

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                                  PART I
-------------------------------- GENET-news --------------------------------

TITLE:  Federal memo warns against GM wheat
        Canada still working with Monsanto to create country's first 
modified seed
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen, Canada, by Tom Spears, with files from the 
Canadian Press
        http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
DATE:   August 1, 2001

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Federal memo warns against GM wheat
Canada still working with Monsanto to create country's first modified seed

Allowing genetically modified wheat into Canadian farming will cause 
hardship and expense for farmers and food processors as they try to keep 
some wheat GM-free for customers who demand it, an internal Agriculture 
Canada memo says. The memo obtained under Access to Information laws echoes 
what wheat farmers have been arguing: GM and ordinary wheat crops are 
likely to be mixed up sooner or later, just as corn and other grains 
already have been. "If transgenic wheat is registered, it will be difficult 
and costly to keep it segregated from non-transgenic wheat through the 
production, handing and transport chain," says the memo to Agriculture 
Minister Lyle Vanclief.

Yet the federal government is working with Monsanto Corp., one of the 
world's biggest biotech firms, to create the first genetically engineered 
wheat crop available to Canadian farmers. Agriculture Canada has contracted 
with Monsanto to develop new lines of wheat resistant to the company's 
herbicide, Roundup. The work began in 1997. Monsanto already sells 
genetically modified corn, soybeans and canola under the "Roundup Ready" 
label. They let farmers kill all the plants in the field except the crop 
they are trying to grow. Other biotech companies have similar crop lines, 
such as Liberty Link.

The memo warning of trouble echoes the problems farmers have had with corn 
and other GM crops. Some buyers, especially in Europe, insist on pure 
conventional grains. And there have been breakdowns in separating crops, as 
when StarLink, a type of GM corn approved for livestock, got into Taco 
Bell's corn meal. Now the Agriculture Canada memos show the department's 
transgenic wheat, developed with Monsanto, is coming closer to the 
commercial market.

"The variety of transgenic wheat that is closest to being registered is 
being developed by AAFC Research Branch on (sic) contract with Monsanto," 
says the memo to the minister dated early this year. AAFC is Agriculture 
and Agri-Food Canada. An attached briefing note adds that "AAFC is 
collaborating with Monsanto to develop genetically modified wheat lines 
with resistance to Monsanto's herbicide Roundup." "It comes back to the 
mandate of the Department of Agriculture, which is to contribute to the 
competitiveness of the Canadian agricultural sector," said department 
spokesman John Culley, who oversees western research on grains.

The research is complete except for the job of gathering three years' worth 
of data necessary to approve the crop, he said. That would happen in 2004 
at the earliest. The project is based in the federal Cereal Research Centre 
in Winnipeg. "They're using the germplasm from one of Agriculture Canada's 
varieties to insert the Monsanto bacterial gene," said Earl Geddes, vice-
president of the Canadian Wheat Board.

"This project with Monsanto is the first time that Agriculture Canada or 
the government of Canada has joined up with another company to actually 
insert genes into germplasm that's been owned by Ag Canada," he said. 
Germplasm is the wheat's genetic material. It's good for the government to 
look for new and better wheat varieties, but not transgenic ones, he said. 
"We're less enthralled that companies can now buy into that research and 
end up owning the varieties that are developed." Monsanto needs Canadian 
government co-operation because it doesn't have access to an extensive 
number of wheat varieties on its own and Monsanto wants its herbicide-
resistant gene inserted into a wide range of varieties.

The federal memos, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, forecast that a 
growing number of GM wheats will enter Canada soon. "Future (10 years) GM 
wheats will have broad resistance to fungal diseases including FHB and 
improved processing quality," one says. FHB is a blight caused by the 
Fusarium fungus. At the same time, the document suggests the Agriculture 
department may have to lead the public relations campaign to make GM wheat 
acceptable in Canada.

"Wheat with the novel trait of Roundup resistance is likely to be an area 
of concern as the industry has yet to develop a strategy," it says. ("Novel 
trait" is the common term for a genetic modification.) "AAFC may have to 
provide leadership in this area prior to registration approval and seed 
increases." GM wheat varieties that resist cold weather, drought and 
disease will stabilize farmers' incomes, the document adds.

Meanwhile, a coalition of farm, health and citizens' groups said yesterday 
they fear GM wheat could put farmers out of business and destroy Canada's 
grain industry. They are calling on the federal government to prevent 
approval of the new strains.


                                  PART II
-------------------------------- GENET-news --------------------------------

TITLE:  This is a noxious weed
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen, Canada, Editorial
        http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
DATE:   August 2, 2001

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This is a noxious weed

When government goes into business, monstrous hybrid enterprises result. A 
classic case involves the Canadian government's refusal to reveal where 
certain strains of genetically modified plants -- wheat, mostly -- are 
being grown for test purposes. The trials are largely being done by 
American biotech giant Monsanto, on a "Roundup Ready" wheat strain, named 
for its resistance to a herbicide Monsanto also produces. Monsanto sells 
several other Roundup Ready plants, such as canola and soybeans.

The trials are a required step in bringing the wheat to market, to ensure 
the plants are safe to eat and don't harm the environment, for instance by 
poisoning the soil. We know the genetically modified wheat is being tested 
in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. But that's as specific as the 
locations get.

These tests are done under the supervision of the Canadian Food Inspection 
Agency (CFIA). Stephen Yarrow, national manager of its plant bio-safety 
office, says the CFIA is bound by the federal government's privacy 
legislation. Since testing sites could be vulnerable to vandalism and 
industrial espionage if they were made public, the company doesn't want 
them revealed, and the CFIA respects that in testing.

Assuming the CFIA's methods -- which are publicly available -- are based on 
sound science, that's fine. We know what the agency is doing in its efforts 
to protect the common good, and why and how; there's no need for us to know 
exactly where. The police, for example, don't share everything they learn 
about the parties when they investigate crimes.

The case of Roundup Ready wheat is more complicated. Mr. Yarrow says these 
particular trials are of products that came out of a collaboration between 
Monsanto and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's research branch. This joint 
venture, operating since 1997, changes the picture substantially. If the 
government is a partner in the venture, it develops a quite different, and 
potentially harmful, interest in secrecy.

Generally, government must operate under more scrutiny than private 
entities. The people do not have the choice, as we do with a private 
company, of taking our business elsewhere if something bothers us -- such 
as too much secrecy. That creates a presumption of government openness, a 
generic right to know all, which can only be abrogated in highly specific 
instances, such as when national security is at stake.

Particularly, the problem here is that once the government has a stake in 
the success of the product, it ceases to be an impartial evaluator of its 
safety. The result is a conflict of interest beneath a cloak of secrecy. 
Agriculture Canada says it is fulfilling its mandate to develop good new 
products for Canadian farmers when it shares genetic material from one of 
its wheat varieties with Monsanto. So it is. That's why that mandate is the 
problem.

The company wants privacy to protect it against both espionage and 
vandalism. And while the state might reasonably try to prevent vandalism 
(for instance at G8 summits) instead of hiding from it and urging firms to 
do likewise, the conflict between Monsanto's right to privacy to protect 
commercial secrets and the government's obligation to be open cannot be 
resolved. Except by the state getting out of business and staying out.

Otherwise, the public gets the worst of both worlds: the secrecy of a 
private interest and the unaccountability of government. That's the sort of 
hybrid the government shouldn't let loose.



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