A Discussion Paper on the Use of Variety Eligibility Declarations

[TOM4CWB]

Sorry guys;

I said "but we did get enough support"

SHOULD have been... but we did NOT get enough support... My brain runs ahead of my fingers sometimes...

[boone]

Tom4CWB; I know the feeling. I could have been a little clearer on this too but, if this idea has some merrit and we are going to be declaring in future anyway, it may dovetail yet. The scare for me is when I'm obligated to sign and somehow somewhere this GMO (amorous little bull that it is, has jumped the fence) and the collateral damage ( I tell ya it's that Iraq influence here)has us all in litigious body bags. (I'm done) I don't generally keep a lawyer idling at the curb and I don't want one. If we can't hold off 5-10 years out of the rest of history, we are no better than todays me/now/I'm entitled/ generation.

[TOM4CWB]

Boone;

This is exactly the point...

I see that it has been reported in the Western Producer Page 12, GM Wheat Buffer Zone Wider, Moved from Breeder Seed Area... says it all;

We find out now, that before 2001, GM wheat was grown (and handled) just 3 meters from other normal wheat, and at the same CFIA Indian Head Sask breeder seed multipication and distribution facility!

Monsanto says they tested all breeder seed grown in 2000 at Indian Head, and that "none was found".

CFIA tested for Fusarium at this same station... in my Supurb breeder seed, and said it was heat treated and free of fusarium, yet it had fusarium.

How do I know each bag of breeder seed sent out over the past 5 years, didn't have just one seed per bag, of RR GM Wheat in it?

Since it seems that Monsanto is the ones testing for this... isn't it like having the fox gaurd the henhouse?

Since Ag Canada has been so co-operative with Monsanto, that they allowed the growing of RR GM wheat at a station that grows breeder seed for every Select grower in Western Canada, would Ag Canada and Monsanto actually say anything is there was a contamination problem, that had got out in the pedigreed seed system?

How do I check my Breeder Select, Foundation, Registered and Certified Seed that I am growing out for everyone else, on my seed farm today... and be 100% assured it has no RR GM wheat in my or my neighbour's Pedigreed Seed Stocks already!

So how can you Boone, be assured that you haven't already got RR GM Wheat on your farm, since this RR GM Wheat has been out and grown since 1998, and probably before that in development stages!

Now what do you think about signing a varietial declaration?

I will sign a statement, as I have done for many years, that the grain I am delivering was grown from certified seed... this was true.

I do my job as a Pedigreed seed grower... But I cannot assure you 100% purity, because no-one can, we don't know absolutely what is in the Pedigreed Stock seed we get... we can only assume.

I will never sign a varietial declaration certification... I will only sign, this is what I grew... And that is all I can be assured of knowing!

We were told at the Killam CWB mtg the GM RR Wheat was Superb, with the gene added... if this is true, then we should know. At least then we would know what plant type to look for... in the fields we don't have Superb seed production growing!

[boone]

Tom4cwb; This is exactly what happened here eith our Arg. Canola, thank goodness we keep samples, Monsanto came out and paid to spray all our fields with Sprinkling of RRCanola on our chemfallow fields and offered to have the fields rogued, if necessary. We sprayed,tilled some. Thanks for a heads up on my Superb seed though I guess I better leave it in the bag till I know. Have you or any of the persons reading this, heard that PMG of Alberta were doing the audits. That would be a curious situation. Maybe it's time for bromegrass.

[TOM4CWB]

Boone;

I talked to Secan the variety owner... they had a very good suggestion.

If there is a specific concern, that the RR GMO gene is in a stock seed lot, it can be tested by taking a small spray bottle of Roundup, and spraying small sample tests, in a number of spots in the field.

If any of the wheat in the test sample plot sprayed... lives... RR GMO genes are there, a second application on the same plant would prove this.

THis is a self audit that any seed grower can do as due dillegence to assure that no GMO product is in stocks this person is growing!

HOPEFULLY this helps folks who are non-organic... I feel bad..., the organic seed people are in a real bind!

[boone]

Tom4CWB; now your scarin me, you mean to say SECAN thinks there could be an outside chance. What would I do if it lives? Spray it with POAST to kill it or till the whole field under with a discer. I wonder if my crop insurance agent will understand. Oh Lordy it's like a nightmare coming true. I gotta go I think I'm going to be sick. Jackflash you want to by some certified Superb Seed good as new. Hell no it's more than you paid for! Please Call.

[TOM4CWB]

Boone;

Tests can be done on the seed itself before it is seeded... a dilute roundup solution is used to test a sample... if the seed germinates... the GMO RR gene is present.

These simple tests are pracitical ways we can cheaply test, for ourselves... if the minute possibility of a problem... could become our farm's problem!

In the end, Superb is really not at more risk, very likely, but since there are non-awned CWRS, and Superb is awned, the non-awned CWRS varieties are safer, because if a CWRS awned plant showed up in the non-awned seed field... it would stick out if you rogue your seed field.

I am sure you can easily sell your stock seed Superb... in an instant... for a very good price, if you are concerned!

10 feet of Isolation, for GMO wheat from other wheats...at the Indian Head breeder seed multiplication farm... for 3 years...was an insane risk to take... no matter how it was done. OBVIOUSLY it should be 30 KM.... not either 3m or 30m.

Don't shoot me, read the March 27th Western Producer, Page 12... I DID NOT MAKE THIS UP!

SECAN CONFIRMED THIS DID HAPPEN, IS THE TRUTH... WHEN I CALLED IN.

Then there is water and wind movement of GMO seed...

Are we to dike and fence our fields... so GMO seed cannot move out into our conventional wheat areas through water or wind movement?

What about wildlife movement of seed from field to field?

Once this little genie gets out of the bottle... it can never be put back noway, nohow! Zero tolerance is almost impossible to maintain.

[TOM4CWB]

Sounds like their would be no purity problem in the GMO Wheat seed. Panic session over. Could be progress. Could be a better tomorrow. Could be a better system for quality control and profit. Could be better system for diease control and less use of pesticides. Could or is the next revolution in argriculture. Could this end the crisis in farming or start hand to hand combat. More information is required at this time before he all live happily ever after.

[boone]

kernel; could be..., we are so open minded our brain floated out. Let's have this conversation in 2010 and we will both have a better understanding. You know with what the Americans are feeling about us as non good neighbours. We might not even be able to give our GM contaminated grain to them. What's left ballast in ships for return trip to Japan? Filling the Vancouver harbour with it for housing expansion maybe. geezus!