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Genetically modified food forum hits Grand Forks

A forum about the genetic modification of food was in Grand Forks last week. Amongst the panelists, B.C. Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko and Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN).
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Panelists

A forum titled Genetic Modification and the Future of Food, featuring Lucy Sharratt, the co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), was hosted at Grand Forks’ Senior’s Hall in City Park on Sept. 21.

Panelists included B.C. Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko, President of the Agricultural Society Roly Russell and member Sheila Dobie, and citizen guest J.J. Verigin. April Reeves, a member of the Society for a GE (genetic engineering) Free B.C., filmed the event.

“This new technology allows scientists to do something very new that we can’t do if we respect the boundaries that organisms have established,” Sharratt said.

“It’s been 15 years since canola was introduced and it’s time to assess this technology,” stated Sharratt. “This list is very small and you may be surprised by how small the list is.”

In Canada, there are four crops that are developed and processed: corn, canola, soy and white sugar beet. Three others include cottonseed oil, papaya from Hawaii and some types of squash.

Sharratt said that one of the problems with genetically modified foods is that consumers don’t know they are buying them because the main crops end up processed into packaged foods.

“Genetically modified foods are either herbicide tolerant, insect resistant, or both,” clarified Sharratt.

“After 15 years, I ask, what has genetically modified foods achieved?”

“What we have seen is contamination, environmental risk, and lack of control. We see now that weeds are increasingly resistant to herbicides, and insects becoming resistant to these technologies. The system is failing, and failing predictably,” she said.

Within Canada’s political system, the topic of genetically modified foods is just as explosive.

“The fight became very heated and strong in Parliament because it’s politically problematic that farmers don’t want genetically modified alfalfa, consumers don’t want it, and yet it’s Monsanto who wants it,” Sharratt finished.

MP Alex Atamanenko agreed. “I introduced C474 during Parliament last year. The bill didn’t talk about health aspects or anything else, it simply stated that before we introduce any new crops, let’s do an economic analysis to what this impact will do to farmers if we do introduce this new crop. Let’s do what most rational people can do, let’s assess the feasibility of a new product. The reaction was fierce.”

With a background in ecology and complex system sciences, Russell stated, “Science has evolved in a system where if there is no evidence for something, then science interprets that as nothing is going on. So until there is evidence that something departs for normal, nothing is going on.”

Atamanenko concurred, “The mentality in government is that, if we haven’t had thousands of people dying from this, it’s probably OK. The science they refer to is the science of Monsanto.”

During the question period, many residents asked panelists their thoughts on various situations, including what the next steps include.

Sharratt noted that there has been success when Monsanto had to pull potatoes from the market and stop the production of wheat due to public outrage.

“Now is a good time to look at genetic modification because we can look at how far we’ve come and the future we want,” she said.

“Monsanto’s slogan used to be ‘Food, health, hope.’ Now it’s ‘Imagine’ and they’re still imagining because we’ve yet to see the full fruition of what they have in mind.”