GE alfalfa stopped – for now

For Immediate Release March 28, 2014

Company right to not release GM alfalfa this spring, says NFU

(North Bay, ON) – The National Farmers Union (NFU) is pleased to learn that Forage Genetics International (FGI) has decided not to begin selling herbicide-tolerant genetically modified (GM) alfalfa this spring. The company’s decision to delay the introduction of GM alfalfa into Canada was confirmed in the March 27 edition of The Western Producer and is consistent with recent statements made by seed companies in Quebec and Ontario. In 2013, without public input or notification, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) granted registration to several varieties of GM Roundup Ready alfalfa, which means FGI and their distributors could legally sell the herbicide-tolerant GM alfalfa across Canada.

Washington Sate farmer says crop contaminated with GE alfalfa

 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/12/gm-crop-contamination-alfalfa-monsanto?CMP=twt_fd

GE alfalfa registered for use in Canada

GM Alfalfa Registered: Email your MP instantly from http://www.cban.ca/alfalfaMPletter

Our government is siding with multinational companies against the best interests of farmers and our food system. I do not accept this. Do you?

Action Update on GM Alfalfa, June 11 2013:

The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) has uncovered that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recently approved one variety of genetically engineered alfalfa: a herbicide tolerant (Roundup Ready) alfalfa from Monsanto/Forage Genetics International. This means that one variety of GM alfalfa is now legal to sell in Canada. There could be more varieties approved over the summer (the process is completely secret).

 

However, GM alfalfa seeds are not yet on the market in Canada. Email your MP today: “Will you stand up to stop GM alfalfa from being released and contaminating our fields and food?” http://www.cban.ca/alfalfaMPletter

 

Join us on April 9 in BC: Take Action to Stop GM Alfalfa

Tuesday April 9, 2013
12 noon to 1 pm

 

34 actions on April 9 including 6 in BC, and in the Yukon! Bring your banners. Bring your voices. Together we can stop the release of genetically modified alfalfa.

Duncan: Charles Hoey Park in downtown Duncan with Jean Crowder, the MP for Nanaimo-Cowichan. Hosted by the National Farmers Union and the Cowichan Green Community. Contact: Cowichan Green Community: info@cowichangreencommunity.ca 250-748-8506

Kelowna: Outiside Office of Ron Cannan, MP for Kelowna-Lake Country, 114 – 1835 Gordon Drive (Capri Mall). To present a petition with over 700 signatures! Contact: Heidi Osterman truefoodfoundation@shaw.ca

Nelson: Outside the Kootenay Co-op! 295 Baker Street. Come and sign the petition! Hosted by the National Farmers Union; Kootenay Lake Agricultural Society; Kootenay Organic Growers; West Kootenay Eco Society. Colleen Ross: colleen.ross.3012@gmail.com 613 213 1522

Smithers: Gather at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Main St, Smithers. Local organic farmers invite you to come and sign the petition! Contact: Jonathan 250-842-0088 or farm@woodgrain.ca

Vernon: Outside the Constituency Office of Colin Mayes. 3105 29 St. Contact: Kelsi Evans kelsievans@hotmail.ca

Victoria: 816 Government Street. Contact: Joan Russow DrjRussow@gmail.com 250 294-1339

Whitehorse, Yukon: Office of MP Ryan Leef – with signs and petition! 204 Black Street Whitehorse. Corner of Black Street and Second Ave. Hosted by Growers of Organic Food Yukon (GoOFY) Contact: Brian Lendrum 867.633.4201 lendrumross@northwestel.net

Details of locations for all 34 locations are posted at www.cban.ca/april9

Press release from the Cowichan Green Community of GE alfalfa

Join Farmers to Stop the Release of Genetically Modified Alfalfa in Canada

Concerned that Genetically Modified (GM) alfalfa could be approved for use in Eastern Canada this spring, the National Farmers’ Union passed a resolution on March 2^nd, 2013 calling for all farm organizations, civil society organizations and concerned consumers across Canada to join the NFU-Ontario in a national day of action against the release of GM alfalfa.  In response to this resolution, the Cowichan Green Community (CGC) and the NFU Region 8 (BC-Peace River) will stand in support of our local farmers at a GM alfalfa rally on April 9^th in Downtown Duncan.

GMO Tour 2011 – Lucy Sharratt from CBAN

Lucy Sharratt from CBAN – Canadian Biotechnology Action Network and April Reeves of GE Free BC will be touring BC Canada this September. Look us up when we come to your area! See many of you at the Okanagan Organic Festival! Look for our table!

Judge Rules GMOs Violate Environmental Law

(NaturalNews) For those of us wondering how bad the untested genetically modified food experiment is going to get before it gets any better, a ray of hope was just offered. A San Francisco judge, the very honorable, Judge Jeffrey White just ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service violated environmental law because of inadequate environmental testing of genetically modified sugar beets. He ruled that the agency failed to see if the genetically altered beets would eventually share their funky pesticide proof genes with other crops. Judge White noted that pollen from sugar beets can be blown long distances and pollinate other crops, including table beets and chard.

White wrote, “The potential elimination of farmers’ choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or consumers’ choice to eat non-genetically engineered food … has a significant effect on the human environment.”

50 US Politicians Back GE Alfalfa Ban Permanently

By Carey Gillam

Following the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on GE alfalfa – that means that it is illegal to plant Monsanto’s GE alfalfa, at least until the U.S. government has finished its environmental review.

Now, 50 U.S. politicians – Democrats and Republicans – are calling for a
continued ban even after the environment review. (This shows the
importance of this issue and is yet another indication that the fight on
GE alfalfa is far from a done deal even in the U.S!) Write to your MP and
ask them to do the same as the US politicians – send a letter instantly
from http://www.cban.ca/474action

**U.S. lawmakers call for continued ban on biotech alfalfa*
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2326472520100623

* Say USDA has “ignored” regulatory authority

* Say U.S. organic dairy industry threatened

KANSAS CITY, June 23 (Reuters) – More than 50 U.S. lawmakers are calling   on the U.S. Agriculture Department to keep Monsanto’s (MON.N) biotech alfalfa out of farm fields, despite a Supreme Court ruling this week that cleared the way for limited planting pending environmental reviews.

The lawmakers said the biotech alfalfa presents too great a risk to
conventional and organic agriculture to ever allow it.

“We believe that the broad regulatory authority available to you has been ignored, in order to justify deregulation of a biotech crop that has limited utility to anyone except the manufacturer,” the letter addressed to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack said.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, were joined by 49 other representatives and five
other senators in asking Vilsack to ensure that Monsanto’s genetically
engineered alfalfa is not approved for commercial use.

US Supreme Court case one of history’s most important for GMO’s

April: while this case may appear to be about GE alfalfa contaminating organic crops, it has a secondary, and in my opinion, worse outcome.

Monsanto is petitioning for an injunction to stop any future law suit against them for anything. This is the worst part, as no one could ever take them to court again for anything: this is very broad: crop damage, human diseases, environmental failures and chemical contamination.

What does this mean? Now we can only sit back and watch, as Monsanto can now do whatever they want, to whomever they please. And we can’t do a thing about it, legally.

Here is a lengthy post filled with information about the beginnings of this historic case. Remember fellow Canadians, this could be us. Bees don’t need passports. We wait on the edge of our seats to hear the outcome….

Supreme Court to take first look at Genetically Modified Crops in Case
with NEPA Implications

The New York Times, USA by Gabriel Nelson    22.04.2010

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday
involving a federal judge?s temporary ban on a breed of pesticide-
resistant alfalfa, setting the stage for the court’s first-ever ruling
on genetically modified crops.

Legal experts do not expect a blockbuster decision on the merits of
regulating modified plants such as Monsanto Co.’s Roundup Ready
alfalfa, but the case, Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, has drawn
widespread interest because the justices could issue a ruling that
would raise or lower the threshold for challenges under the National
Environmental Policy Act.

Environmental groups, which frequently use the statute to bring
lawsuits against government agencies and industry groups, ‘don’t
expect anything good’ to come from the Supreme Court’s eventual
decision, said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel at the Sierra
Club. It seems that some of the justices are ‘on a kick to gut NEPA
remedies,’ he said earlier this year during a panel discussion on
environmental law at Georgetown University.

Alex Atamanenko’s Private Member Bills on GMO and Farmer Protection

Alex Atamanenko is an MP in BC Southern Interior, and an NDP critic for Agriculture and Agri-Food. Below are his words and the bills he has put forward:

Thank you for your letter in which you support my Private Members Bill (PMB), C-474 – An Act respecting seeds regulations (analysis of potential harm). This Bill calls for an amendment to the seeds regulations ‘to require that an analysis of potential harm to export markets be conducted before the sale of any new genetically engineered (GE) seeds are permitted.’

The need for such a law is clear and I am pleased to finally have the opportunity to bring forward a Bill in the House of Commons that will protect farmers from the severe financial consequences that can arise as a result of unwanted GE contamination in their export crops. The type of economic devastations that recently occurred in our flax industry because of GE contamination must not be allowed to happen again, for example to Canada’s wheat and alfalfa farmers.

Monsanto’s GE alfalfa closer to U.S. approval & sales

Canadian farmer and consumer groups responded to an invitation to comment on a Draft Environmental Impact Statement created by the United States Department of Agriculture. The seed was first approved in 2005.

Saskatoon, Sask. – Canadian groups submitted comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) completed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in hopes of dissuading approval of Monsanto’s GE alfalfa. The alfalfa, originally approved in 2005, was taken off the market by a court order after a coalition of groups took the USDA to court. The groups won a temporary ban of the release of the seed to the market, pending an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be prepared by the USDA. Now that the USDA has prepared the court required Draft EIS, the public was allowed time to comment, although Wednesday was the last day for submissions. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) issued a press release Wednesday to inform Canadians that at least three Canadian groups submitted

“… highly critical analyses to the USDA. They argue that GE alfalfa plantings in the U.S. would contaminate Canadian alfalfa and cause serious harm to Canadian farmers and the environment.”