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Alberta farmers are concerned after Japan announced Friday it’s blocking imports of Canadian wheat following the discovery of an unauthorized clump of genetically modified wheat in southern Alberta.
The Asian country is one of Canada’s biggest customers for the grain and bought $203 million worth of wheat last year from Alberta alone, making it the second-highest purchaser after the United States, provincial agriculture statistics show.
“We just heard they’re temporarily suspending shipments, just to find out more information. We don’t know how long,” Alberta Wheat Commission chair Kevin Bender said.
It’s the first time genetically modified wheat, which isn’t approved for commercial use in Canada and other nations, has shown up in the country, although such wheat has been field tested, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The plants, modified to resist Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer, were discovered last summer by a contractor who reported a few stalks of weed wheat beside an oil access road survived treatment with the herbicide, the CFIA said.
The agency says it was an isolated incident and that extensive testing of nearby fields, export shipments and other sites showed no genetically modified wheat had entered the shipping or seed systems.
“The event itself is really not an issue, but it’s kind of being made into an issue … We know the Japanese in the past have been very specific in issues like this,” said Bender, who’s concerned the move could hurt prices.
“It’s a concern. It could spread to other countries. We’re hoping it’s very brief … We’re quite confident once the Japanese see the full report from the CFIA, they will be satisfied this is an isolated case.”
‘World’s safest grain’
Provincial officials say they’ve been told by federal agriculture staff that this is a standard response by Japan in such situations and the disruption should be temporary.
Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said Friday Alberta farmers produce the world’s safest grain.
“We’re disappointed in Japan’s decision to suspend the trade of Canadian wheat, but we understand the need for due diligence,” he said in an emailed statement.
“We’re confident that this can be resolved quickly — previous incidents like this have been resolved in a matter of a couple months, and Canada has put in place world-class testing measures that were not present in previous disputes.”
Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous plans to follow up with his federal counterpart, and the Alberta trade office in Tokyo will provide support to resolve the issue.
The value of Alberta’s total wheat exports in 2017 was about $2.1 billion.
David Bailey, director of the CFIA plant production division, told an Ottawa news conference Thursday that analysis of samples from 1,500 export shipments over three years and other work shows the plants didn’t spread beyond the one location.
“We have developed a test kit we can share with trading partners who wish to test their own grain that comes from Canada,” he said.
“There is no genetically modified wheat in our trading system or our seed.”
Unknown origin
But Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, said it’s worrying officials don’t know where the plants came from.
“It does raise concerns that somewhere else, at another date, we could find plants with this genetically modified trait.”
That would put Canada’s annual $11-billion wheat business at risk, said Sharratt, whose Halifax-based organization has 16 member groups across the country critical of genetically modified food.
“Global markets haven’t approved genetically modified wheat,” she said.
“We know if (it) is found in exports, those export markets will close, at least temporarily.”
Investigators determined the plants matched a line developed by Roundup maker Monsanto and grown in field trials in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the tests were done at least 300 km away, according to a CFIA incident report.
“We can’t speculate on how it arrived at its location, but what we can say with confidence is it hasn’t left that location,” Bailey said.
Officials aren’t sure what type of wheat is involved because it doesn’t match any of Canada’s approximately 450 registered varieties, he said.
The incident report shows the CFIA and other agencies, which will monitor the area for three years, went to great lengths to ensure this was a one-off event.
They searched 60 metres into fields on either side of the 500-metre access road once the ground was dry in May, discovering four wheat heads thought to come from the original infestation.
They also looked at nearly 170,000 individual kernels of grain from more than 1,500 export shipments over the last three years.
None of it matched the genetically modified wheat. Herbicide resistant canola, soy and corn has been allowed in Canada for more than 20 years.
Alberta farmers are concerned after Japan announced Friday it’s blocking imports of Canadian wheat following the discovery of an unauthorized clump of genetically modified wheat in southern Alberta.
The Asian country is one of Canada’s biggest customers for the grain and bought $203 million worth of wheat last year from Alberta alone, making it the second-highest purchaser after the United States, provincial agriculture statistics show.
“We just heard they’re temporarily suspending shipments, just to find out more information. We don’t know how long,” Alberta Wheat Commission chair Kevin Bender said.
It’s the first time genetically modified wheat, which isn’t approved for commercial use in Canada and other nations, has shown up in the country, although such wheat has been field tested, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The plants, modified to resist Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer, were discovered last summer by a contractor who reported a few stalks of weed wheat beside an oil access road survived treatment with the herbicide, the CFIA said.
The agency says it was an isolated incident and that extensive testing of nearby fields, export shipments and other sites showed no genetically modified wheat had entered the shipping or seed systems.
“The event itself is really not an issue, but it’s kind of being made into an issue … We know the Japanese in the past have been very specific in issues like this,” said Bender, who’s concerned the move could hurt prices.
“It’s a concern. It could spread to other countries. We’re hoping it’s very brief … We’re quite confident once the Japanese see the full report from the CFIA, they will be satisfied this is an isolated case.”
‘World’s safest grain’
Provincial officials say they’ve been told by federal agriculture staff that this is a standard response by Japan in such situations and the disruption should be temporary.
Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said Friday Alberta farmers produce the world’s safest grain.
“We’re disappointed in Japan’s decision to suspend the trade of Canadian wheat, but we understand the need for due diligence,” he said in an emailed statement.
“We’re confident that this can be resolved quickly — previous incidents like this have been resolved in a matter of a couple months, and Canada has put in place world-class testing measures that were not present in previous disputes.”
Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous plans to follow up with his federal counterpart, and the Alberta trade office in Tokyo will provide support to resolve the issue.
The value of Alberta’s total wheat exports in 2017 was about $2.1 billion.
David Bailey, director of the CFIA plant production division, told an Ottawa news conference Thursday that analysis of samples from 1,500 export shipments over three years and other work shows the plants didn’t spread beyond the one location.
“We have developed a test kit we can share with trading partners who wish to test their own grain that comes from Canada,” he said.
“There is no genetically modified wheat in our trading system or our seed.”
Unknown origin
But Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, said it’s worrying officials don’t know where the plants came from.
“It does raise concerns that somewhere else, at another date, we could find plants with this genetically modified trait.”
That would put Canada’s annual $11-billion wheat business at risk, said Sharratt, whose Halifax-based organization has 16 member groups across the country critical of genetically modified food.
“Global markets haven’t approved genetically modified wheat,” she said.
“We know if (it) is found in exports, those export markets will close, at least temporarily.”
Investigators determined the plants matched a line developed by Roundup maker Monsanto and grown in field trials in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the tests were done at least 300 km away, according to a CFIA incident report.
“We can’t speculate on how it arrived at its location, but what we can say with confidence is it hasn’t left that location,” Bailey said.
Officials aren’t sure what type of wheat is involved because it doesn’t match any of Canada’s approximately 450 registered varieties, he said.
The incident report shows the CFIA and other agencies, which will monitor the area for three years, went to great lengths to ensure this was a one-off event.
They searched 60 metres into fields on either side of the 500-metre access road once the ground was dry in May, discovering four wheat heads thought to come from the original infestation.
They also looked at nearly 170,000 individual kernels of grain from more than 1,500 export shipments over the last three years.
None of it matched the genetically modified wheat. Herbicide resistant canola, soy and corn has been allowed in Canada for more than 20 years.
