A Discussion Paper on the Use of Variety Eligibility Declarations

[boone]

Tom4cwb; I get a sense we are very close to new technology that will enable us to do some of the things you are talking about here, I was thinking about what you said in regards to being readied for GMO wheat with affidavit system. I believe this could work if we would be financially responsible for what we grow. So I buy seed from you and test it at a cost. It has GMO wheat in it so I sue you, next you go back to your supplier and sue him, but at the end of the day would Monsanto be responsible for their genetic pollution? I doubt it. Does our customer care who is responsible? NO. That is why we have to stand together to send this back to the lab for as long as it takes to satisfy the consumer side of this equation. They keep throwing out fusarium as reason enough to pursue. I say it would be a better thing to switch from wheat till we solved that problem than to permanently destroy our opportunities. This is a hard red spring grain farmer talking here. I am just visiting 30-50 years, these decisions are timeless.

[charliep]

Just a note as new varieties come on board, the visual distinquishability is becoming more difficult. Some of the new CPS varieties (as suggested to me) are pushing the boundaries now with hard red spring wheat. Even in the non GMO world, there will be increasing needs to look at other alternatives than strictly visual to segregate wheat.

The next step will be to identify quality characturistics better and develop better mechanisms for moving them through the grain handling system to customers who are willing to pay the necessary premiums.

Long and short. How does the grain handling system move from blending to value segretation.

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie;

This is not rocket science.

The US does it... without variety declarations.

Japan, supposedly the pickyest buyer in the world, buys close to half of their wheat from the US... by spec.

We do IP contracts, if a buyer wants a specific variety, then contract production from Certified seed. SIMPLE.

Swearing a declaration... that cannot be backed legally unless certified seed is planted... is pointless.

Any farmer can grow certified seed himself... this also is not rocket science!

I see Canario Canary seed is in this bind!

Canario had over 50% of the Canary Seed that was planted... but the farmers have brown bagged it for too long... and now they have a blend of semi-hairless Canary.

What is so bad about planting Certified Seed, The EU requires it... to get farm programs... are we so undiciplined that we won't even plant independantly verified good planting seed?

[boone]

Tom4cwb; nothing is wrong except the cost. The seed growers out here tell me they send a dollar a bushel back to ag canada or whomever owns the PBR. It is a barrier to certified seed.

[charliep]

Boone

The question comes to how new variety development should be paid for? Government responsibility/shared by society? Returns paid to breeders which reflect their risk/develement cost? Returns to breeders/companies based on the value they bring the farm comunittee?

[boone]

charliep; before cost recovery was the war cry, pure research was in effect like pure water, safe aircraft regulations, sewer treatment monitoring etc.If it was good for ag it was good for the country with all that entails. It was only as we as a diminished voice, lost our political influence that we became targets. At the same time federal governments moved away from anything more than lip service about research and left the Ag industries to support our universities and set it's future mandates,ergo, RR canola, wheat, etc. the fed gov relinquished it's authority by disassociation of funding and content.

[TOM4CWB]

Boone;

You have made some good points on varietial development... some of us have paid thousands of dollars through Western/CWB funding system in the last few years... and this seems to be taken as a gift by Scientists... rather than our investment!

However... if something is worth real value... it is worth paying for!

Sask. Pulse guys are having this problem.

Through a Varietial release program... the brown bagging seems to start earlier... even though there are no levies to pay!

If a variety is good... and there are no levies... the seed growers many times see a profit point... and sell at the competitive price with varieties with levies on them... and if the variety is actually better than the other levy based ones... even a higher price can be extracted!

On top... since there is no levy... everyone "feels" justified in brown bagging it!

Quality control costs money... no matter how it is done!

Certified Seed is a great investment... IMHO... and the extra $2.00/ac it costs... on most crops... is simply insurance.

If the CWB/other marketers want quality assurance... then they need to pay a little extra for this benefit... if it in fact is worth more to our end use Customers!

I see VED as an infection... designed to take something for nothing...

There is no such animal, on my farm... I have to pay the cost... which means they want this benefit for nothing!

[boone]

Tom4cwb; how about this, instead of $1.00 per bushel upfront. Why not .02 cents per delivered bushel. You declare the variety. No reason to not conform. So 3000 acres X 38bpa.=114000bu X .02=$2280.00 if you do it the other way you get maybe $3000.00 of levy but you have to catch it.
#1Good variety X better yield= more levy.
#2 X market acceptance=more levy.
#3 longer acceptance= more levy.
It would be self managing.
Stinker varieties get left behind. The best researchers get maximum payback. The variety you contract for will have natural inducements.

[TOM4CWB]

Boone;

The system you have suggested is being used in Australia... and working VERY WELL according to all reports we have heard.

Our Alberta Pulse Growers Zone 3 brought forward a motion for we Commissioners to investigate how this kind of system worked if could be done here, ... but we did get enough support for even this Motion to pass at our Farm Tech Annual Meeting in Edmonton.

It is a tough one to get through... especially when so many have planted brown bag seed for so many years!

Many times the Certified Seed we sell through our network... Galloway Seeds FORT. SASK. AB... costs less than many peoples Brown Bag seed!

Point of sale levy is a good system.. could be very cost effective... then a delaration is simply made of which variety is grown... and the small levy is contibuted back to the seed organisation that bred and owns the seed. I understand the AUSIES do it this way!

[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.