Flax tidbits

[LWeber]

I hope you have contributed to the Triffid Schmeisser fund...

perfect goat ...

no appearance fees - no travel costs ...

FFS... open you eyes once.

OILWORLD - OCT 02 - A German publication

In European laboratories
the GM material was identified as FP967 or Triffid, a flax variety introduced in the late nineties.
However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

[parsley]

If the coalition of experts do anything worthwhile, they'd put you on a plane, Weber, and send you to Europe to speak for farmers.

Most of the experts are filled full of themselves right up to the eyebrows, some with trade and some with shipping and some with regs, and some that have experience in all of the above.

I will say this: On this website, you have always defended the farmer. And the farmers' pocketbook. And you have expertise to boot. I don't. I can only ask questions.

I would sincerely recommend sending Weber on a fix-flax mission. Pars

[parsley]

Maybe so, but yesterday's infraction suspect on their Rapid Alert was the 28th,

yes, 28th country

testing positive for a test that Canada questions, but has nothing better to supplant the current test with!:


01/10/2009 01/10/2009 2009.1267 DE unauthorised genetically modified (FP967 suspected) linseed used in baking mixture manufactured in Germany, with raw material from Canada, via Belgium cereals and bakery products

I don't blame Canada for being frustrated. Pars

[Zaphod]

In this case, complaining that it isn't fair won't make a bit of a difference. That said, I'd like to see the proof too.

[charliep]

parsley

From your last post, have these 28 incidents been at the gene level or still the gene marker? I note the term suspected and not actual in the quote. That would suggest the European lab still has not 100 % identified the source as triffid flax but could come from some other source - the genetic market can be found in nature/other crops.

Perhaps the biggest lesson to make sure that all these biotech innovations are registered in all the relevant countries when they come out. Canada likely could have worked through the European regulatory system 8 to 10 years ago for a crop that is mainly industrial and used as a livestock protein. Protocols/supply chain surveilance could have been developed for the food and organic markets.

[parsley]

An interesting thought is this, and I'd like you to think about it, AV farmers:

Set aside for a moment, the fact that you think Greenpeace are loonies. Sometimes I do, too.

BUT: Greenpeace wants non-GM flax for food. It doesn't have to be organic, just non-GM.

EU customers have been willing to extra dollars to pay for foodflax. More $$$$$$$$$$$$/tonne.

That benefits Canadians.
EU could be buyer cheaper flax.

So differentiation has divided flax sales.

Who stood to gain if the Canadian farmers' food-flax was diluted with cheaper industrial flax and sold as food flax?

1.Not EU consumers.They paid full price for diluted flax.

2.Not Can farmers. We simply sold less food-flax.

Now think about this:

If all food flax farmers argue that food flax is equally as healthy as industrial flax, haven't Canadian food flax growers just talked themselves out of commanding a premium?

Wouldn't going the OTHER way be more profitable both short term and long term, considering over 70% of EU imports shop for non GM flax? Pars

[parsley]

charliep
From their Rapid Alert sustem, this is a representative listing following being submitted suspect and THEN confirmed positive (two dates):


1. 28/09/2009 01/10/2009 2009.1256 GB unauthorised genetically modified (FP 967) linseed from Canada cereals and bakery products

I wish it wasn't FP 967 charliep

pars

[LWeber]

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

However, a
recognized testing method is not yet available.

[parsley]

QUOTE

"COMMENT from Prof. Joe Cummins: The situation is certainly a sad one. I am concerned with the quote "McHughen said the EU can't say for sure it has found CDC Triffid because there are other GM flax genotypes (none grown commercially) and the EU doesn't have information on them, he said."

I have been unable to locate any field test releases of GM flax other than Trifid in Canada or the USA. McHughen's cryptic comment seems to imply that unreported field tests of GM flax were done in Canada, ie that the Canadian Agriculture Ministry has allowed open field trials of GM flaxes that it did not report. That would be an abuse of the regulations which require that GM field tests be reported to the public. Secret field trials of GM crops would be dynamite in Canada. Of course, he may have meant the GM flax trialed in Poland but there is no way that could get all the way to Canada in order to pollute our flax imports.

Regarding the carry over of Trifid in the field plantings reported, it is also worth mentioning that flax seeds are frequently saved by farmers and the GM flax genes will achieve equilibrium over time in the population that they pollute. Those genes may even be selected in growing the flax in rotation with wheat that has been treated with sulphonylurea herbicides, as Triffid flax is resistant to sulphonylurea derivatives. The consequences of carry over due to planting GM flax years ago makes McHughen's promotion of the use of flax for producing biopharmacueticals or plastic monomers in the open field completely out of the question.

[Joe Cummins is Professor Emeritus of Genetics at the University of Western Ontario]
---
UNQUOTE

[cottonpicken]

Did i say SQUEEZE-i ment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66JLspp9oC8&feature=PlayList&p=719A74A5DEF 11CE1&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=31

-warning graphic