Help us stop the genetically engineered apple being developed in the Okanagan by Okanagan Specialty Fruits.
This is an apple being genetically engineered so it doesn’t go brown for 15 days. All municipalities in BC, the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, organic apple growers, and even McDonalds and Gerber in the U.S. have said they don’t want the genetically engineered (or GM for genetically modified) apple.
Join the retail campaign and visit a local store and ask them to commit to not selling the GE apple. For a backgrounder, go here GMO Backgrounder
For a letter you can take to your local store from HANS BC, go here HANS Retail Letter
And for a letter your local store can sign saying it won’t sell the GE apple, go here GE-FreeBC-GM-apple-retailer-pledge
Here’s your chance to tell the BC government to put a moratorium on the GE apple.
Write to the Minister of Agriculture Norm Letnick and ask for the review of the GE apple that the BC government has promised. A sample letter is here. to-the-minister-of-agriculture
For a template of a letter to your MLA asking them to help stop the GM apple – gm-apple-letter-to-mlas-2
For a list of MLAs go here Legislative Assembly of BC Contacts
And don’t forget to write a letter to your local paper – for a template go here Letter to Editor on GM apple
For background information on the GM apple, go to www.cban.ca/apple
GE Free BC 
Stop this disgusting gm apple I’m so dissipointed in Canada and BC.
Please stop GMO apples!
Together, taking action, we will stop the GM apple! Thanks for getting involved.
Stop this sh!t
Please stop this insanity. Let the people choose what is grown and how they wish to eat not have government or industry dictate and try to manipulate us to do what we do not choose to do.
Thank you to the people who are standing up for a sustainable future. We don’t need a GM Apple… and we don’t need the risks that may be associated with GM Food.
Gmo free, or at least allow us to know what we are eating by labeling gmo foods
Pingback: Stop the GM Apple - Hoven Farms
We need to stop this. However, I’m concerned that the process required for people to take action is just too much work. To have to print, collect signatures, and then send it off to an MP will definitely turn people away.
Is there anyway an online petition could be created for this? Or are online signatures not acceptable for this petition?
Hi Laura, unfortunately online petitions are not acceptable in the BC Legislature or in the House of Commons. We don’t think it will be too much work, we already have a few thousand signatures and we just started collecting a few weeks ago. People really don’t want the GE apple.
So what else is in development by Ok Specialty Fruits?
Nothing right now but if the apple is approved they plan to move on to other fruits such as blueberries.
I do agree with Laura, unfortunately i likely won’t print anything and sign it and send it off. There must another way. But I will try and remember, when I have access to a printer 🙂
Hi Shelley, we can’t present an online petition to the BC Legislature. Online petitions are really useful for some things such as general advocacy, but this campaign is targeted to MLAs and they need hard copy petitions. We have a few thousand signatures already so people are working on this. Hope you find a printer soon (-:
Pingback: UsedEverywhere | How To Green Your Kitchen - UsedEverywhere
Hi everyone,
There will be a special screening of “GMO OMG” on Wednesday, April 9th at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in the Auditorium hosted by Green Ideas Network and Kwantlen Horticulture Department starting at 7:15 pm. Harold Steeves will be our guest speaker. Refreshments, door prizes.
Admission by donation. See http://www.greenideasnetwork.org for more info or contact Betty.Cunnin@kpu.ca
Slow browning apple? Who needs that? Nobody. I’d rather buy and eat an apple with a bug hole it than know it may act with free radical’s(doing genetic and cellular damage). when ingested; or knowing it has been marinated in pesticides/herbicides. Biodegradable or not, how benign can it become? Limited. Reactive products are still distributed to the ecosystem.
Never mind if Gmo foods are safe to eat like the BT strains(biotoxin) the fact that I first heard of GMO company’s suing private farmers in like year 1999 for having patented genetic material in traditional private stock via windblown pollen is absurd and is reason enough to boycott these company’s, and their products. I started learning about GMO foods 2years ago in sincerity; actually frightening. Monsanto used to make long banned DDT and agent orange(used in vietnam) assisted the US gov’t with the Manhattan project. Bacteria found living in old leaky pesticide vats were sampled ‘glued’ to viruses glued to gold molecules(like lead in a bullet for weight) they invade/combine with living cells. Carrying the foreign DNA to the plant cell via compressed air guns until it works. GMO’s are likely unstable and can act as free radicals when eaten. These strains can withstand massive pesticide/herbicide sprays killing everything but it. The BT variety are make to produce deterrent amounts of toxins for insects …why wouldn’t this be somewhat toxic to us? Don’t know how not. India has many cases where livestock die from the foder of expensive GMO cotton variety’s . Bloody horror story’s. Suicides to the tune apparently to the tune of 240,000 people due to crop failures, mostly male father’s; supposedly in. Indian law,if the contract holder dies the debt is void. Lobbying to make it difficult for small farmers to save their own seeds? Madness. My last box of kellogs raisin bran. Obviously I’m not against science but it’s moot to the point, like nukes, good experiment but NOT a good idea.
If you don’t want to eat gm apples then don’t. But don’t tell other people that they can’t have them. I don’t have a problem with gm apples that reduce food wastage. I’ll gladly eat a GM apple a day.
Thanks for your comments Jonathan. Did you know that about 50% of food in North America is wasted? I don’t think the introduction of a genetically engineered apple which most consumers (69% in the most recent poll) and all Tree Fruit Growers Associations in Canada don’t want will reduce waste much.
Hi Jonathan, your choice, but I WANT to know what i am eating. Waste your own food. But i use what it buy and buy it local from farmers I know. The whole system MONSANTO, GOVERNMENT, DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW. That is the point of it. I want the choice to know. Not to be hidden.
If you allow the GM apples to be produced in the Okanagan, they will destroy other orchards, the same way GMO crops are spreading and destroying farms across this country!
Stop this nonsense of Gmo’s ….. which is totally disgusting and not right….
if you need fit to make gm foods then tell us what ones are gm myself i dont want to eat gm food . you guys in my mind are messing with thing we should never mess with stop gmo s .
Pingback: GM apple campaign: rotten to the core | GE Free BC | GE Free Comox Valley
Pingback: Genetically Modified Food: Comparing Apples to Apples - Vancouver Mom
Please leave nature alone !!!
Do Not Supply your stores with GM or GMO products. Give your customers healthy foods so not only They will return, but others as well
Enough already!
If GM apples are approved in Canada, I will never buy another apple.
As an organic Apple producer, I have been notified by the certification board that any grower who has GMO Apples in the vicinity of their farm will lose their Apple certification!!! GMO Pollen will contaminate neighbouring Apple trees rendering them UNCERTIFIABLE. This is true about all other crops too- especially devastating for organic seed growers. So this is not just about what an individual eats, it’s an assault on the Organic industry too.
Canadians DO NOT NEED this garbage! GMOs have been ABSOLUTELY PROVEN TO BE DETRIMENTAL to ALL natural life forms! Get rid of ALL GMOs COMPLETELY!
Stop gm apples, cross polination will destroy the heirloom apples in my garden and the consumers apples
I have to object to having the gm apple in stores.
It is such a Canadian pride to be able to go into local grocery stores and purchase BC fruit, without worrying that it is genetically modified.
Once long term studies are conducted and funded NOT by Monsanto, that prove no Ling term harm, it is inhumane to allow them in our market. Humans are not to be tested on, especially unknowingly.
This is not “Canadian”. Let’s set ourselves apart from our neighboura downstairs.
STOP THIS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Additional actions against the GE FrankenApple – USA, Canada, etc.
Stop Biotech’s new Kiss of Death GMO Apple
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/stop_the_kiss_of_death_GMO_apple
Stop the approval of GMO apples!
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-the-approval-of
Tell the USDA to reject GMO apples.
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14650
Tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Don’t approve GMO apples
http://act.credoaction.com/letter/doa_gmo_apples/
Tell the USDA You Don’t Want a GMO Apple!
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12512
Tell the USDA to reject GMO apples.
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14649
Tell the USDA: No GE Apples!
https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881//p/dia/action3/common/public/index.sjs?action_KEY=8279
Say NO to GMO Apples
http://www.change.org/petitions/say-no-to-gmo-apples
Stop GMO Apples! Send a message to the USDA that US consumers and growers are against GMO apples!
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8779
Demand Safety Testing of Genetically Modified Apples
http://forcechange.com/64054/demand-safety-testing-of-genetically-modified-apples/
The only thing wrong with this apple is the scientific illiteracy of the people opposing it, who know nothing about it, how it came about, and the hard work put into breeding it. There’s nothing harmful about this apple. A GMO is not an additive, it’s a breeding technique. A gene is not an additive, it’s a recipe. Fear mongering at it’s finest.
James, thank you very much for your comment. As to the scientific credentials of GE Free BC, we are advised by Dr. Thierry Vrain, who is a genetic engineer and who headed up the BC Summerland research centre where the prototype of the GE apple was developed about 12 years back. So we are certainly aware of how the apple came about and the science behind it. We are also a member of CBAN, which receives scientific advice from internationally renowned academic specialists in genetic engineering.
Stop poisoning us, the environment and biodiversity with this junk that’s not fit for human consumption. Thank you
Please stop this g m o apple and its associated pesticide usage from entering our food chain. This untested science has to stop being pushed on Canadians. The only benefit is to the manufacturer. Apple browning is. A non issue but the release of these products is life threatening to our health our environment and our childrens futures. We need many independant long term studies before any more of these products are released. Seriously why would any minister elected by Canadian taxpayers endorse products that may cause harm because a company developed it to make a profit.