tom 4

[TOM4CWB]

Oneoff,

We have some serious thinking to do in Alberta. DO we treat the GM flax event... like clubroot in Canola?

It is possible to make Alberta GM Flax free... if that is the position leadership at the Provicial level decides.

Then we need to set a protocol that does just that... stop the spread and clean it up. This will cost $$$millions... and take half a decade

Or;

Not worry about seed (no differnce between farmsaved and pedigreed) that tests negative ABOVE .01%. This is VERY different that getting rid of the GM event out of our environment and soil in Alberta.

What is our choice?

CFIA is responsible... down to .1% to varietial purity in the pedigreed system. That is why they tested to this level. I am told the real stats on 1 60 gram test... is .03% 95% of the time... or ".01% 67% of the time... which isn't much better than 50/50".

So those who tested with the cheap test... got a negative... now need to test using the 4 60 gram tests... taken from accurately samples seed lots... to know what they have on their farm.

Are we brave enough... to find out?

Parsley... once we know what we have... then we can figure out how to fix it. Is 2 years enough? Flax land use should be out for 5 years... just like canola... to give reasonable assurance volunteers have been grown out... then seed production should be aborted if 1 volunteer flax plant is found between seed rows.

2 years in a rotation means nothing... on the prairie... especially when we have dry years... and zero till.

[charliep]

Is anyone talking about getting the genetic event around triffid registered
in Europe? There is a process. I note it went relatively quickly for
genetically engineered (GE) corn when it started interfering with GE
soybean imports.

[parsley]

Yes, moving the discussion on is the quick fix. Hurry. Hurry.

What about making use of hindsight?

Crushing flax would have worked if there had been a follow up component.

What EXACTLY did the Seed growers Association tell the Triffid growers? T

They knew who the breeders were. The Association demands that conventional growers musttest, so I presume they inspected the Triffid seed growers' audit trail that their association requires from its' membership with that same kind of authoratative vigor.

Have you the information on that charliep?

Now maybe there was an association follow-up but with the Assocaition growers policing themselves as breeders, so no enforcement component.

And then, the Government is an active partner/player, so how competent OR impartial is CFIA if are they are also a player instead of being a regulator only?

The protocol for handling new events is flawed.

But what about future events? Food MUST have a safety component to it. Food is the bottom line. And each one of us growing a food crop holds that responsibility.

I would also like to mention to you charliep, that although we can "move on" and Triffid the entire planet with gusto, it then becomes a tad difficult to grow flax organically.

Have you considered that? Pars

[parsley]

“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you."

[parsley]

Any farmer who sprays his crop, or treats seed, OUTSIDE the acceptable chemical time lines, and delivers it to any facility, should also be publically quarantined for two years from delivery, and have his name listed on the same website.

Cowboys get charged by the CFIA for kicking a cow, so high levels of chemical content in FOOD grain should be just as transparently punishable.

Farmers as well as companies need to be slapped.