Sheila Hulquist wrote a letter to the editor of the Waterloo Region Record today arguing against allowing the introduction of
Roundup-Ready alfalfa, but she used specious arguments to make her case.
She says organic farmers are concerned that the
genetically-modified alfalfa would cross-pollinate with their fields of organic
alfalfa. Perhaps so, but I don’t know a single farmer in all of Ontario who
harvests alfalfa seed to plant another field. They all buy seed, almost all of
it grown in the Peace River area of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
They need never buy Roundup-Ready alfalfa seed. Nor is
cross-pollination a concern for seed they buy; they simply have to specify what
they want.
Hulquist wrote “genetically modified alfalfa threatens to
end all organic agriculture.”
I see no reason why that should be so, especially because organic farmers could - and almost all do - harvest alfalfa long before it reaches the seed stage.
And, finally, what is it about genetic modification that
concerns the organic movement? I think it’s because all of the
genetically-modified crops introduced so far involve patents held by large
corporations, such as Monsanto, Dow and Bayer. They don't like big-company power.
And if that’s the real reason, the organic movement would do
well to argue for reduced regulatory burden so genetic modifications could be
completed by small-scale and local plant breeders.
That’s what took place before patenting and excessively
expensive data requirements were imposed for genetically-modified varieties.
A great deal of plant breeding used to be done by University
of Guelph professors and their students, and that brought huge benefits for
Canadian farmers and consumers. No thanks to the organic movement and other
fear-mongers opposed to all genetic modification, that’s gone.
