- WINNIPEG - There is confirmation
of something canola farmers have been saying for years: that genetically
modified canola is popping up where it wasn't planted and where it isn't
wanted.
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- An Agriculture Canada study suggests the problem is in
the seeds. More than half of the seed samples tested showed some level
of genetically modified presence. The study's authors conclude that means
almost every canola field planted with conventional seed will contain
some genetically modified plants.
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- Rene Van Acker, a plant scientist at the University of
Manitoba, is duplicating the Agriculture Canada study on test fields, checking
to see how much genetically modified canola has found its way into conventional
seed through pollen or accidental seed mixing.
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- "I think its very significant and I also think its
a formal recognition that genetic pollution does happen," said Van
Acker.
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- Van Acker is duplicating the study on test fields, checking
to see how much genetically modified canola has found its way into conventional
seed through pollen or accidental seed mixing.
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- For farmers it means adding a second kind of herbicide
to their regular spraying to kill the plants that have been genetically
modified to resist their regular herbicide.
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- For organic growers like Mark Loiselle it's a serious
problem. "Any contamination of seed stock with genetically engineered
crops is too much for organic production," he said. Loiselle is trying
to launch a class action suit against the companies that make genetically
modified canola. It's because of his legal challenge the Agriculture Canada
study was released.
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- Earlier this year the CBC program Country Canada used
the access to information law to get a copy of the study, but with large
parts blacked out. It was only after Loiselle's lawyer applied to have
the whole study that Agriculture Canada made it available.
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- "There's a lot at stake here for Canada and so we
shouldn't have this stuff being hidden. There should be an open discussion,"
said Van Acker.
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- The Canadian Seed Growers Association helped to pay for
the study. It says it wasn't released because it isn't finished. They also
say it just confirms what they already knew. "What the report clearly
indicates is that there isn't 100 per cent purity and we knew that before,
so that is not rocket science to know that because that is the way mother
nature is," said Dale Adolphe of the CSGA.
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- Written by CBC News Online staff http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/06/27/gncanola020627
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