I had recently written to Ms Elisabeth May, leader of the Green Party, regarding a perception that she was only promoting labelling of GMO, which we consider wholly inadequate. This is the second email I had sent to her in the past year. I did not receive any response from the first one, and am not holding my breath for any response now either.
Nonetheless, I did read up on the party’s vision statement, and paid particular attention to the agriculture section, point 1.15, page 20 to 25 and including fisheries and forest management.
I liked what I saw, and am curious to learn how the party proposes to implement some of its vision, if not in the federal Government, where its membership strength is minuscule, to Municipal levels such as in city of Vancouver, where it has a better representation, having four members in Council, school board and park board. I am contemplating writing to councillor Adriane Carr, to ask her about her plans to usher a GE free resolution and bylaws that push back at industrial chemical and toxin dependent food system, and bring in small farmer produced clean and local food into the food chain.
There is another reason for this interest. Folks from the rest of Canada, where municipal level fight back against GMO has not yet happened, are keen to learn how BC does things in this regard, and would be taking notes on it, either contesting Municipal elections the Green ticket, or as independent candidates, or coaxing their existing Municipal councillors to see the light, when it comes to Sustainable and healthy agriculture.
Meanwhile, here is a part of text from the green vision, that I would like to include here, and perhaps include in my book of essays, Canada under GMO attack:
Our food security and safety are threatened directly by agribusiness, as factory farms crowd chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs into inhumane and unhygienic conditions, creating the risk of serious health threats from toxic spinach to mad cow disease and swine flu. Animals are often pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, while many crops are now genetically modified and treated with pesticides.
This is a welcome start of the section. It describes where Canada is with regard to how our food supply is being degraded by unhealthy, unhygienic and potentially toxic ingredients, not to mention the potential loss of our biodiversity through theft or contamination from patent holding foreign corporations that aim to own any living organism that one could make money on. Based on such statements, I expect the Green party policy to lay down action items that its candidates would initiate, to redress our agriculture, food security, and ecology.
The health of Canada’s population today and in the future depends on the environmentally sustainable production of wholesome food. We believe that local organic agriculture must play a role in mitigating climate change, providing food security, restoring soil health, improving human health, protecting water, and providing sustainable livelihoods for citizens. We must restructure our agricultural markets to sustain farming and provide farm families with a fair share of the consumer food dollar. We want to expand local small-scale agriculture and support a rapid transition to organic agriculture rather than subsidizing costly agro-chemicals, industrial food production and genetically modified crops.
All of the above text is pertinent. I like the portion made in bold (by me), because it, in my view, will reverse a dangerous trend in Canada. That trend is to de-populate the agricultural heartland, forcing small farms to go extinct and small farmers to move to be part of a new urban unemployed class. And while this goes on, larger and larger tracts of the agricultural land falls prey to massive scale industrial agriculture employing a minimum number of contract farmers working for a pesticide peddling toxic model owned by a bunch of foreign corporations and their local partners in crime. To me, this is a crime, to suck out rural farming livelihood, and converting a healthy community into a wasteland of corporate greed.
On a side note, it has been mentioned that small organic farmers, while employing more people, producing healthier and likely more food than the industrial model, cost of food itself might rise. I am not certain if it would rise, but if that happens, I personally would accept that, as a price we must willingly pay, for good food, sustainable future, and for ensuring that our organic farmers are earning enough to stay in the profession.
People need healthy food and the healthiest food choices are local. With growing concerns over economic and climatic instability, a reliable domestic food supply is essential.
Agreed. More than that, local food is essential for a healthy economy where our money stays in the community, and where food does not have to consume huge amounts of energy for transportation across thousands of km. Irrespective of what the economic voodoo artists tell us, it is an unacceptable policy in my view, where local farmers go out of business so that I can eat cheap food coming from California or Mexico or Philippines, all in the name of “progress”. Thats not progress – thats baloney.
The document then goes on to state what Green Party MPs would do:
Amending the Canadian Food Inspection Agency mandate to remove any obligation to promote Canadian agri-business, ensuring the focus is on food safety and food safety only, with enhanced resources for inspection and monitoring.
I am not fully certain what the above means, but suspect that there is a mandate in place currently, which removes any obligation for the Govt to support Canadian agri-business. If I read this correctly, then the current Govt policy would give equal preference foreign agri-products and base its selection on safety alone. If this is true, this is an outrageous mandate. First of all, all things being equal, the Govt MUST give preference to local products. The Govt is supposed to be for the people – Canadian people, and not for foreign corporations. Next, the very concept of food safety has been hijacked. There is no food safety analysis done by anybody in Canada. The Govt accepts bogus statements from the very promoters of the agri-business product, which constitutes a conflict of interest.
Not only that, the very science on agriculture has been hijacked by the industry, where public funding is missing, and the industry has turned vicious and intolerant of any dissent. Canadian food sovereignty, food security, independence and local economy is being crushed to facilitate profiteering by a few foreign corporations and their local collaborators.
If I read this part correctly, then the mandate does require to be removed. The question is, do I read it correctly, and where is this mandate ? Can we get a copy of its details ? Who can help here ? I think the public deserves to know.
Ensuring the quality and wholesomeness of food by strengthening the monitoring of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth hormones, non-therapeutic antibiotics and insecticides in food production, processing and storage, with the goal of an orderly reduction in detectable residues of these substances until they reach undetectable limits.
Excellent. Cannot argue with that – except one point. Canada does not have a lab that will test either the people, or their food, for presence of Glyphosate. I urge the Green Party to take notice of that, and put it in its agenda to address it.
Establishing federally funded, community-guided school lunch programs across Canada to ensure that ourchildren have daily access to healthy local food and can learn about sustainable food production and healthy eating. Strengthening Plant Protection and Health of Animals Programs with measures to ensure the integrity of farm food products. Improving and strengthening the Canadian Organic Standard. Providing transitional assistance for those switching to certified organic farming practices. Ensuring that no animal by-products are used in ruminant animal feed. Strengthen testing for BSE by implementing 100% testing (testing of every slaughtered animal) as soon as the process of detecting BSE in blood samples is perfected.
All agreed. Good idea. I would have added one more clause. Organic certification is costly, and the industrial chemical and toxin gene pushing agriculture model is the primary suspected source of contamination that an organic farmer needs to take care of. Therefore, I believe industrial chemical and GMO farming business should a) pay higher tax which goes to offset the cost of preventing contamination for the organic farmer and b) pay for the organic certification. In other words, organic farmers should receive a subsidy from the Govt, which the Govt would extract from higher taxes for industrial farming. Also the same higher taxes would pay for certification of organic farms, providing additional economic relief for small local organic farmers.
The document then goes on to state:
Provides Food Security by: Moving towards regional food self-sufficiency across Canada, as we begin the shift to organic agriculture as the dominant model of production. Supporting the “200 kilometre diet” and locally grown food through expansion of farmers’ markets and local culinary tourism activities. Promoting rooftop gardens, cultivation of green urban space for agriculture, food production in cities and suburbs, and community gardens. Protecting the right of farmers to save their own seed. Promoting heritage seed banks and seed exchange programs.
I agree with every one of these points – like music to my ears.
Reduce Corporate Control of the Food supply by: Reforming agriculture regulations to challenge corporate concentration. Ensuring that farm support payments are farm-based (not production-based) to encourage more farms and more farmers. Encouraging organic farming methods to improve farm profitability and sustainability.
Again, cannot argue with that. I also applaud the Green Party for stating these points clearly and without ambiguity, whereas the strategy statement from NDP appears to skirt around specifics, in comparison.
Improves Agricultural Research by:
Ensuring that new plant cultivars and animal breeds remain in the public domain.
Shifting government-supported research away from biotechnology and energy-intensive farming and towards organic food production.
Increasing publicly-funded research into organic farming techniques.
Establishing new policies for private research efforts to ensure that they are in the best interests of family farmers and consumers.
Preventing the patenting of lifeforms.
Ensuring that developers of genetically engineered crops are liable for any damage those crops cause.
I cannot stress enough how important these points are. New breeds of plants or animals should remain in public domain. They remain God’s creation and they cannot be property of any corporation. All research into better hybrids will be for the benefit of the people and not for profiteering. This will remove the incentive to shove shitty products onto the people, and killing alternatives and monopolizing the market with dubious crops.
We stopped public funding of Agriculture and allowed biotech industry to highjack research as well as the very science, turning it into a biased propaganda machine instead of a scientific tool. We need to redress it by public funding.
Stop patenting lifeforms and stop accepting such patents. Living organisms were not created by these corporations. They merely tinkered and poisoned a few organisms, by first stealing the genome of a healthy organism that should have been the property of a nation of a people. They are thieves engaged in biopiracy. They should be tried, not allowed patents and profits from their act.
And yes – make GMO producers and pesticide peddler liable to be sued for damages, including class action lawsuits.
The document then goes on to address the GMO or GE food issue
Genetically engineered (GE) organisms pose a potentially serious threat to human health and the health of natural ecosystems. Many Canadians want to follow the example of the European Union and ban GE crops. At a minimum, GE products must be labelled, giving consumers the right to know, and to say no to GE foods.
Although polls show that 8 in 10 Canadians want mandatory labeling of GE foods and food ingredients, the federal government has not acted. In 2004, the Standards Council of Canada adopted a Standard for Voluntary Labelling but it has not been widely adopted.
The government is not exercising enough oversight and control. In fact, Agriculture Canada is promoting GE technology, forming partnerships with biotech companies and partnering in the research initiated by the biotech industry. Agriculture has already experienced the harmful impact of GE crops. Herbicide-resistant (Roundup Ready) canola has escaped and become a noxious weed.
Greens understand that GE organisms and “terminator” technologies come with health and environmental risks. All food products containing GE organisms or their products must be labeled. It is up to the companies that produce and promote GE organisms to prove that they are safe. No such organism should be released into the environment until it is proven to pose no unacceptable risks to human or animal health or to the environment.
This is all true, but it bypasses the issue of Glyphosate and other herbicides. It also does not address the fact that such poisons are also sprayed on non-GM food as desiccant, therefore exposing us to getting poisoned even without eating GM ingredients. There is enough independent material out there that show strong possible links between Glyphosate and various diseases that are rising in North America. None of these possibilities have been studied by independent units and are effectively being ignored by our Govt. Therefore, declaring biocide content is as important, if not more so, than declaring GM content.
Also, Canada regretfully does not have a lab where Canadians could test either their food items, or their body fluids such as urine or blood, for presence of Glyphosate. Most Canadians do not even know. Such labs are available in most other regions of the world as well as in USA. Canadians are placed in a particularly unfortunate situation where they cannot even test how much of these poisons are in them and in their food. I would strongly urge the Green Party to include it in their vision statement, to ensure that Canada has at least a few labs that will offer this service, and that the Govt will initiate testing or help Canadians financially, to test themselves and their food for presence of these herbicides.
And then, the Green Party vision document goes on with:
Green Party MPs will work to:
Ban experimentation with planting and promotion of new GE crops. This includes a ban on further GE research (except for traditional seed selection and grafting) at Agriculture Canada and a ban on companies such as Monsanto owning patents to GE products developed through joint research with Agriculture Canada.
Implement the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a protocol within the UN Biodiversity Convention, which Canada signed and ratified in 1992 and which came into force in 2003. The Cartagena Protocol requires the adoption of new products to be guided by the precautionary principle, which balances the economic benefits of innovation with public health and ecological integrity.
Require mandatory labeling of all GE foods and food ingredients.
Support local,provincial and territorial GE organism-free zones where these local jurisdictions declare that genetically modified plants and animals are not to be part of the agricultural mix.
Prohibit field testing commercial use, sale and importation of “terminator” (genetic use restriction) technologies.
Maintain the ban on GE wheat and oppose GE alfalfa.
Place a moratorium on field-testing genetically modified trees while an expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada examines the risks.
While all of the above is commendable, there are a few errors in their statement, relating to Cartagena Protocol.
First, the protocol focuses on protecting a country from inadvertent damage to its biodiversity, from imported LMO (Living Modified Organisms, which is UN-speak for GMO).
Next, Canada signed it, meaning it showed intent to implement it. However, Canada never ratified it. In other words, Canada is one of a very few countries that have failed to follow through with legislation that would have protected Canadian biodiversity from damage, or contamination from imported GMO or theft Canadian plant and organization’s genome by foreign corporations.
Canada therefore is in an unenviable position with regard to protecting its biological diversity, its flora and fauna, from biopiracy. I urge the Green party to not only correct its statement, but also pledge to redress this shortcoming soonest.
Summary
I applaud Green Party’s vision statement, and have the following observations/suggestions/questions:
- What is Canada’s Food Inspection Agency mandate with regard to promoting Canadian food product ?
- Canada has no lab that will test Canadian’s body fluids or food for presence of Glyphosate. I suggest that the Green Party addresses this shortcoming.
- Canada signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biodiversity protection, but did not ratify it. 168 other countries have. This is a major shortcoming in Canada and our biological diversity is up for grabs by foreign biotech corporations and are being stolen right under our nose. I would suggest the Green Party not only correct its statement, but also address the shortcoming.
Hi Tony.
Glad to see you’re still fighting the good fight!
(We met in Brandon this summer where you spoke along with Thierry Vrain.) You may be interested in an article I wrote which appeared a couple of years ago in the Canadian journal, Alternatives & on my blog. It was entitled “Field of Nightmares” and centred on Roundup (glyphosate).
“Field of Nightmares: Ottawa promotes the use of Roundup by Canadian Farmers, Letting Corporate Seduction Trump Scientific Evidence.”
http://www.planetinperil.ca/2012/09/field-of-nightmares.html
I also met Rose Stevens there and have since been impressed with her enthusiasm in promoting the Green Party as one way for forwarding the cause of a GMO ban. I have no doubt the Greens are the most promising political instrument available today for that purpose. (I was a candidate once but currently hold no official position with them. Still a member, tho and still donate kuz I don’t see much hope in any of the old-line parties)
Hope you agree. Enjoy the article!