GM triffid Flax and Pedigreed Seed

[Hopperbin]

Tom you said this,
"As I have said time after time... the pedigreed system has no ability to deal with background traces levels of varietal impurities under .1%. "

So why are we going with this system?
Vittera ceo believes so strongly that selling the farmers certified and all the inputs will produce good low gm seed. But your saying no guarantees.
Shouldn't you seed growers clean out your combines or at least only grow one variety instead of 5. Or wait more years before growing a different variety on the same field? What ever happened to sumerfallow anyway, that was a good way to increase purity.

[parsley]

Don't forget this boys:
tom4cwb is on the firing line here, and HE is the guy who didn't grow Triffid.

The rest watch him hang out on the line.

It tells you Tom is visible and accountable and he'll answer his phone when you call. Remember that when you buy seed. Pars

[TOM4CWB]

Hopperbin,

The CFIA did a big round of checks last fall for varietal purities... and we are told all varieties tested came back under .1% triffid GM event.

This IS the international standard for varietal purity in pedigreed seed not something CFIA or CSGA dreamt up.

Now there is other issues in flax that are important... like advances in oil quality in newer varieties... better yields... things both commercial growers and end users in the EU could benefit from. That is why in general... the stewardship program is not a bad idea... but does make some sense. Thia is of course totally outside the triffid GM event problem.

I would be surprised if flax breeders of other varieties that do not originate with the breeder farm who developed triffid; have a purity problem with their breeder seed.

Only time and testing will tell what that situation is.

If Viterra wants their own variety of flax to export... that is their option.

THERE is no monopoly on flax exports... certainly Viterra does not own the industry.

If there is gobs of money to be made... test your flax... if it is clean you will have many opportunities with it! If your farm was clean before... it will very likely be so now! Buy seed; buy that seed and tell the grower you are going to have your own test done... and do a test BEFORE you plant it!

If it is not zero... do not plant it!

You will need to start soon... to have it ready to go in the ground... but 2 weeks can easily get an ISO certified lab to do the test... that the EU Uses in the US to ship zero triffid GM event.

Phone Viterra... and see if they will guarantee zero triffid certified seed stocks! Take a sample as your truck is loaded... that the seed seller supervises and agrees to. Have it split 3 ways, one to test, one for you the buyer, and one for the seller to keep.

If it were me; I would demand the pedigreed seed be in a sealed mini bulks... or 25kg bags so the seed seller can not complain if it tests positive and you need to bring the pedigreed flax seed back because it didn't test zero for triffid.

All these safety measures cost time and money... again start early and plan ahead!

Happy flax growing in 2010... it could truly be a great year with all the uncertainty! The acres going in the ground are very likely to be less!!!

[oneoff]

You guys are missing the point that nothing tests zero. There is no test for anything that is that accurate. What a current "negative" Triffid tests do is say there isn't more than 0.1% or (0.01% for the "4 panel" test, I gather) most of the time (probably about 95% of the time.
Any grower, or seed salesman or seed grower who tells you a sample is Triffid free is a damn fool; naive, stupid; or just doesn't understand the tests that are currently being done.
I've said that in a nice way too many times already.
Absolutely NO ONE KNOWS IF ANY SAMPLE IS ABSOLUTELY TRIFFID FREE. There is NO test for that available.

[oneoff]

Here's a part of a news report from this morning. Some more unnamed guys talking about stomping it out. History will record whether they have any idea about what they are talking about. Ever notice that now this theory is accepted; and not even able to be traced back to an individual who should be responsible for the quote.


"Since the discovery of GM contamination in Canadian flax shipments to EU, trade between Canada and its largest flax buyer has been heavily restricted. To help stamp out the Triffid problem once and for all, growers are being asked to follow an industry requirement that all 2010-crop flax earmarked for export to the EU be planted with certified seed only."

[wmoebis]

Could someone talk about how buying and seeding certified seed from the same buissness that sold the problem in the first place will certify that it will not be contaminated again?

Shouldn't the public be made awhare of who these seed growers are so that we can decide if we want to deal with them?

Is this how the affidavit we sign when selling our wheat is going to work? If so aren't we sticking our necks out even if we seed wheat bought from all seed growers? Not everyone can tell contamination of mixed classes in wheat.

I don't like where this whole thing is going. Time to close the trap door on these long underware.

[Choice2U]

After reading this and much more, I just don't get how buying certified seed that is tested and qualifies as "non-triffid" is any better than using bin run seed that is tested and qualifies as "non-triffid". So why are we going the certified seed route??????? I am guessing that "the industry" is selling this misleading new protocol to the Europeans in hopes that the suckers believe it is better. What happens when Triffid still shows up like before because this protocol does not change anything?

[VK58]

IMHO the solution is simple, make it a requirement,as suggested tested seed and tested harvested product to be able to market the flaxseed. However the certified seed price should be fixed because no matter how you rationalize the results, the CSGA,seed growers, seed companies all have to some degree a level of fault in this fiasco.
For them to benefit financially from this is assinine.
Everyone needs to take their lumps and move forward.
ps. Had a chem rep around the farm about a month ago, they had surveyed 170 farms only 2 had indicated any intention to grow flax. In our part of the world there is too many options to put up with this BS,you have to be of the contrarian point of view to grow flax.

[bucket]

So maybe a forced 1:1 seed exchange would work.

You need 400 bushels of certified seed for 2010. You sell 400 bushels of flax in the growers name and bring him the cheque when you pick up that "industry cleansing certified flax seed".

I just wish the seed growers would put their money where their mouth is and take some responsibility for this. It would go a long way to supporting them in the future.

[oneoff]

Lets have some real names and organizations asociated with who is making theses decisions. This type of thing just evolves to the point of the press reporting an action plan as being a mandatory obligation of a whole farming sector that has had its suggestions ignored. Maybe that's because the regulators are culpable and the seed developers; farm supply wings and seed growers associations are going to be huge winners.
Damn them all.

[TOM4CWB]

Folks,

Have you forgotten that EU countries require pedigreed planting seed?

When the stewardship program was put together; the implementation of pedigreed seed was part of the negotiation to allow flax below .01% into the EU.

I truly think you folks are missing the issues we face.

WE can clean this GM event... out of western Canada... if that is what we want to do. LLRice and Starlink corn are examples of cleanups.

In 2001 we had a canola GM event that had the wrong RR gene event... the acres and seed were all destroyed.

It is gone.

We too can fix this... if we are disciplined and decide to do so.

No one said it would be 'easy' but then what worthwhile in life... is easy?

We farmers are 'can' people... nothing is impossible!

[parsley]

<a href="http://parsleysnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/02/editorial-marketing-certified-flax-seed.html"> Is tom4cwb now the spokesman for the 'learn from this and move on' crowd? </a>