Guess what flax growers?

[parsley]

And there will be many seed growers like you Tom, who were diligent, and honest.

It is one of the reasons why I write what I write. It's making you mad, and not making me popular. And I have a sad heart to do it. I would like Canadian seed growers to shine again.

But they do not.

But I do believe Seedgrowers can salvage the seed growing industry if they work quicklly as an association, which is why I press..

I also believe a cleansed seed industry can serve farmers.

But not as it is.

It needs cleansing, badly. You know that. There are a bunch of people that have just gotta go. Unless they do, and I will say this again, ALL WILL BE LOST because your customers, ordinary commercial growers, will look a seedgrower in the eye, and ask. "Why the hell should I pay a premium for contaminated seed?"

Many of them are already getting orders from their next door commercial neighbors for seed!

You simply became peripheral damage, Tom, as sad as that is.

There must be some public cleansing to gain back credibility or ALL WILL LA MORTE. And not just within Canada.

And doing nothing will impact all other exporting.

[parsley]

I disagree about guts.

Responsibility is reacting quickly to solve a problem. They did not.

Responsibility is owning up. They had to be tied up and dragged across frozen ground by horses and stoneboat before they would grunt, "OOps"

You think they had guts? Good heavens, this was their legislated responsibility!

[parsley]

And I believe the question for every single farmer reading this will be:

How will the same people tend gentically modified crops,(stacked genes,for example) that your children will eat?

[TOM4CWB]

Parsley,

The breeder that started Triffid is not at CDC Uof S. THe total breeder seed program was moved to a different farm area over 10 years ago on the breeder seed multification area at CDC.

I don't believe the CDC farm in Saskatoon that multiplies for select seed distribution... had any clue this was a problem. Why would they... they never tested for the gm event in the first place... Hindsite is 20/20... blame easily attributed.

To pick on the average pedigreed seed grower... who totally depends on reputation and honesty to do business... to infer we are crooks is uncalled for and unjust. This is a margin business. Easily... you can start tomorrow Parsley... and grow Pedigreed seed. No questions asked.

There is no more competitive farm based business in western Canada.

Your inferences are unfair Parsley... we do not grow seed to rip you off.

[parsley]

I paid a price, too.

My blog got hacked, and for anyone doing a google search on Triffid flax/biotech webpages, most get sent to la la land links.

Me and my techie know who did it, too. But you know what Yogi said. lol Pars

[parsley]

An example, Tom:

In 2000, Advanta imported Canadian breeder foundation canola seed into Sweden, Germany and France and found that it contained 0.4% unapproved GM traits. It was because of gene flow.

Ding ding.

France ordered it ploughed down. Sweden prohibited the canola from entering the market

Ding ding.

Do you suppose this should have been a heads up for Canadian foundation seed breeders?

[agstar77]

Do the Seedgrowers Association have liability insurance?? Or is it up to individual seedgrowers. If they don't then they need it for future situations, ugly. I have not grown flax for years. I would only grow it now under contact with guarantees on pricing and acceptance with or without Triffid.

[oneoff]

The warning bells went off when the industry tried to force feed a flawed certified seed solution to the Triffid nightmare. That plan has now become totally unwound; but do we hear an apology for misleading the farming community? It is patently evident that the regulators and the promoters and the researchers should never have been entrusted with the science; not yet and maybe never should be. Do they not see what has gone wrong; and what will again happen until they learn the lessons that absolutely must be the foundation of this experiment.
They are playing with much more than their own marbles. Time to act like they appreciate that fact.

[bucket]

I think the testing protocol at the labs is flawed.

They should review the science behind the tests.

[broker]

I heard that buyers have intentionally bought positive testing flax, then shipped it to the US and the carlot results were negative! So what does any of this really matter??

[wmoebis]

"In the interest of producers".

Where is our watch dog?

Is this not a grain quality issue?

[TOM4CWB]

broker,

one seed in one million seeds... or .0001% is one seed in about 6kg. It would be hard to get the one seed... when it is sampled. You would expect to find it (the triffid gm event) only 4% of the times the 240 gram samples were taken.

Many believe the event has been diluted down through cross breeding... to where the gene could be only 12.5% of the genetic material that was in the Triffid variety of flax kernel.

That there are false positive events... is very hard to believe. At this level of dilution... when making linoleum... with most this flax?


Lets make it here.