Got an e-mail from "agriville update" this morning with the Farms.com story "Possible solution found for GM Flax Problem (Feb 08,2010)
The jist is ......."A new protocol or what the trade is calling a triffid stewardship program has been put in place," says Quinton Stewart, Viterra's merchandiser of flax and soybeans, during an industry conference call earlier this week.
"All seeds going into ground must be tested and all seed destined for the European market specifically will be required to be seeded with certified seed," Stewart says".......
Sure looks like we get the positive spin only. You have to dig for the the full news.......
You don't get the full text there and you don't get the full story at Farms.com; but only in the link to ....
http://www.fcc-fac.ca/newsletters/en/express/articles/20100205_e.asp#story_3
There you also learn.......
"This is a necessary step that needs to be done to restore confidence in the market and is an economically feasible way of ensuring the reliability of the testing and sampling being done," Stewart says.
Some producers have expressed concern that they will be forced to purchase certified seed.
"We hope that seed growers understand that taking advantage of this protocol, vis-à-vis higher prices, (for certified flax seed) would not be a good public relations gesture," says David Sefton, a Broadview, Sask., grower and director with SaskFlax.
During the conference call, it was also stressed that all efforts will be made to find markets for growers with flax found to have minute traces of GM material.
"The Flax Council of Canada has put in place some people who will contact those that have positive results directly, to help them market their flax at a fair and reasonable price," Sefton says.
About 2,500 flax samples have been tested for the presence of this GM variety and industry officials say "about nine per cent of those samples have tested positive for triffid." However, the contamination is at very low levels with the highest concentrations at 0.1 per cent. There is also no hot spot for the problem as triffid has been found in samples from across the Prairies.".......
Soooooo.... Don't you just love that word stewardship. It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling like few other words. You don't have to even define iy or tell anyone what you really intend to do; because we automatically know everthing within a stewardship plan is something your own mother would enthusiastically endorse.
The flax industry (and leading spokesperson Viterra) apparently are the ones that have decided this is good for farmers.
The headline says it all "Possible Solution Found for GM Flax Problem (Feb 08,2010). I guess they are not quite 100% sure it will work, but maybe in this case 0.01% or 1% or 10% would pass muster.
It is worrisome when the industry has to warn their peers not to take advantage of the situation. As we all should agree; the writers of those statements aren't likely to live their own corporate lives under that credo; so those words are less than empty. Meant only for the really naive.
There is the fact you have to look for the details (posted above) which don't add to the positive spin the industry wants on this story. That bothers me the most. A positive stewardship plan should stand on its own and not be founded on hidden and minimized problems. If there is a plan or stewardship plan; and farmers had input into its development; then that would be more acceptable. When those with obvious and perceived agendas develop them unilaterally (with a good dose of sneakiness always built in; then they need to be seen for what they are.
The industries agenda must be exposed for what it is and resisted because of that agenda.
The jist is ......."A new protocol or what the trade is calling a triffid stewardship program has been put in place," says Quinton Stewart, Viterra's merchandiser of flax and soybeans, during an industry conference call earlier this week.
"All seeds going into ground must be tested and all seed destined for the European market specifically will be required to be seeded with certified seed," Stewart says".......
Sure looks like we get the positive spin only. You have to dig for the the full news.......
You don't get the full text there and you don't get the full story at Farms.com; but only in the link to ....
http://www.fcc-fac.ca/newsletters/en/express/articles/20100205_e.asp#story_3
There you also learn.......
"This is a necessary step that needs to be done to restore confidence in the market and is an economically feasible way of ensuring the reliability of the testing and sampling being done," Stewart says.
Some producers have expressed concern that they will be forced to purchase certified seed.
"We hope that seed growers understand that taking advantage of this protocol, vis-à-vis higher prices, (for certified flax seed) would not be a good public relations gesture," says David Sefton, a Broadview, Sask., grower and director with SaskFlax.
During the conference call, it was also stressed that all efforts will be made to find markets for growers with flax found to have minute traces of GM material.
"The Flax Council of Canada has put in place some people who will contact those that have positive results directly, to help them market their flax at a fair and reasonable price," Sefton says.
About 2,500 flax samples have been tested for the presence of this GM variety and industry officials say "about nine per cent of those samples have tested positive for triffid." However, the contamination is at very low levels with the highest concentrations at 0.1 per cent. There is also no hot spot for the problem as triffid has been found in samples from across the Prairies.".......
Soooooo.... Don't you just love that word stewardship. It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling like few other words. You don't have to even define iy or tell anyone what you really intend to do; because we automatically know everthing within a stewardship plan is something your own mother would enthusiastically endorse.
The flax industry (and leading spokesperson Viterra) apparently are the ones that have decided this is good for farmers.
The headline says it all "Possible Solution Found for GM Flax Problem (Feb 08,2010). I guess they are not quite 100% sure it will work, but maybe in this case 0.01% or 1% or 10% would pass muster.
It is worrisome when the industry has to warn their peers not to take advantage of the situation. As we all should agree; the writers of those statements aren't likely to live their own corporate lives under that credo; so those words are less than empty. Meant only for the really naive.
There is the fact you have to look for the details (posted above) which don't add to the positive spin the industry wants on this story. That bothers me the most. A positive stewardship plan should stand on its own and not be founded on hidden and minimized problems. If there is a plan or stewardship plan; and farmers had input into its development; then that would be more acceptable. When those with obvious and perceived agendas develop them unilaterally (with a good dose of sneakiness always built in; then they need to be seen for what they are.
The industries agenda must be exposed for what it is and resisted because of that agenda.
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