FLAX TESTING FOR GM material

[parsley]

No, of course not every one of them grew flax. But they probably did know flax growers involved with Triffid.

Triffid was the reason for forming the company and associating, and is the commonality which underlies these legal proceedings, is it not?

I view it as a GM spill. It needs to be cleaned up, if for the reason that Canada is able to do so, if nothing else.

[haveapulse]

"There was no action taken, except to proclaim, two months later, that the CGC have identified the source of Triffid and the location, but they aren't telling."

Parsley as I understand only 9 seed growers were released the seed, and subequently provided the opportunity to dispose of the production

Those names would be public record.

Pars?

[haveapulse]

Not to change the topic, BUT, I cannot help but compare the flax contamination process, to the actions we are NOT taking on club root in canola. This summer an announcement came out stating they had found evidence of club root in Saskatchewan, the location of the source was not revealed and will not be disclosed.

In the total absence of any proactive measures of identifcation, and isolation of infected fields, no program to control the spread of the soil...club root now infects 1000s of acres in Alberta and is now in Saskatchewan! Instead of proactive measures of isolation the industry allows the measure of control to be pinned upon resistent seed (and undoubtedly expensive) seed as a method of control, and so I note:

The lessons will be repeated until they are learned: Triffid flax is realy minor in comparison to clubroot in canola, and really can be eliminated quite efficiently with testing of seed. Buyers next spring will insist on purchasing flax from certified TESTED seed, and the cost of testing will not break any farmer.

However the loss of canola ground could, so are we learning anything as an industry?

We did nothing with flax control, but worse still we are doing nothing with club root control.

We must be idiots.

[parsley]

Are farmers interested in making sure 2009 flax shipped overseas don't sit contaminated in some port?

Are farmers interested in preventing 2010 fields from becoming infested? I translated a lot from chinese on this one last week, kinda interesting side issue, but nope, I don't sense much concern on either issue, haveapulse.

[bucket]

The problem is that the checkoff money the groups take is suppose to be used for that but they have pissed it away on their own self promotion to get more money.

[haveapulse]

At the end of the day it is our
industry, supposedly our associations,
we elect members to organizations to
administer our levy dollars. At some
point, if we believe in democratic
order, they are accountable to us.

When the announcement about club root
being found in Saskatchewan was
released, I called the association to
ask the location and what was being done
to control the spread. Nothing was the
answer. Nothing being done, nothing
could be revealed.

So bucket, you know whats in that
bucket!

The flax issue is simple, and can be
easily isolated and removed, in
comparison to club root which can and
will spread in the absence of any
proactive measures.