The $320M Canadian flax industry is on the verge of being destroyed forever due to some individuals or companies growing and selling a genetically modified variety called Triffid, which was ordered destroyed 10 years ago. Flax shipments contaminated with this variety have been banned from European Union countries, members of which buy 70% of Canada‘s flax production. This should be a lesson to any individual or company developing and selling genetically modified food. Stop it now before other sectors of the World food Industry step in, consider it a contaminate and refuse to buy products from Canada.
"Myself and others predicted this would happen and that's why we worked to get rid of [it] 10 years ago," said Terry Boehm, President of the Canadian Farmers Union. "If you're going to play around with [genetically modified] crops, once the genie's out of the bottle, once it's in the environment, you can't control it," Boehm has stated. Two more of the 10 flax varieties handled by the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre have shown genetic contamination, managing director Dorothy Murrell told CBC News. "I'm quite certain as we start to test the certified seed, there will be other varieties that will show contamination," said Barry Hall, the Canadian Grain Council's president. "There's no question this will change the industry forever."
The practice of genetically modifying grain and other foods will eventually lead to further bans and we as a country, will lose our greatest asset…our food safety and the ability to feed the world with our produce. Our entire AgriFood industry is at risk, I feel, and everyone had better wake up and demand that genetically modifying food be banned at all levels. Popcorn, and indeed nearly all varieties of corn, for example, are so genetically modified already, that it is nearly impossible to find “real corn” anywhere.
Treating seed with chemicals before seeding chemically treated fields, spraying chemicals for weeds, and to desiccate (kill) the crops to make it easier to harvest, have exposed our bodies to so many levels of chemical contaminants, it is no wonder adults and children alike, are developing diseases and cancers like no generation before us. If the cost of food has to rise in order to pay the farmer to stop using chemicals and farm organically, then we will have to simply pay more. What is a person’s quality of life worth anyway??
It has been proven in many studies that smoking causes increased cancer risk and health costs. I am not a food scientist, but I feel that genetically modifying food and seeds for crops and treating them with multi doses of chemicals, has a more wide spread effect and causes more health risks and conditions than smoking does…because everyone eats…we have no choice! Chemicals and hormones given to our meat animals find their way into our bodies. They have been found in our sewage…they got there from our waste so we had to have eaten them, right??
Organic farming is no longer just a novel, “longhair, Hippie way of life” It has to become mainstream, the norm, and more affordable in order for us, as Canadians, to remain healthy and live longer lives.
My suggestion is for everyone to start on the road to better health by supporting our local organic growers, our Farmers Markets and our small meat shops and bakeries like our lives depended upon it…because our lives do depend on a more natural source of food…free from chemicals and genetic modifications.
And a word to organic growers and farmers…sharpen your pencils and get your prices at more affordable levels and promote your products. Everyone will be better off for it.
These are just my opinions…I may be wrong.
JR