March 2000 / OCPA Newsletter
OCPA directors wish they were in position to provide clearer advice to Ontario corn growers on what to plant this spring - or, more specifically, what will be marketable in late 2000 or 2001. However, the following seems to be the best which can be offered.
Casco continues to state that it is not receiving significant demand for products made from non-genetically modified (GM) corn, and it does not anticipate a change in purchasing requirements. This also applies for the Commercial Alcohol Inc. (CAI) plant in Chatham, for which corn is purchased by Casco. Casco and CAI represent a market for more than 60 million bushels (1.5 million tonnes) per year. The smaller Nacan plant at Collingwood will continue to purchase waxy corn grown under contract (none is GM) and normal corn (which can be GM). All of the above plants will continue to refuse delivery of corn containing GM genes not approved for sale into Europe - chiefly, Roundup Ready corn.
Pioneer has announced that it is not marketing seed of its 38B22 hybrid, containing a combination of Liberty-Link and Bt genes (each of which is individually approved for EU importation, though the combination is not, in Ontario, though it is in Quebec). The hybrid 38B22 represented about half of the two per cent of Ontario corn grown in 1999 which was not accepted by Casco, Nacan and CAI.
It's worth noting that GE genes and protein are generally undetectable in starch, sugar and oil products made from GE corn - whether EU approved or not - and there is no test which will distinguish 38B22 corn from a mixture of grain from hybrids which contain Bt genes and others which are Liberty-Link. But wet millers are being cautious. And GE ingredients can be detected in protein feed byproducts - though not in livestock products made from these feeds - when sold into Europe and Japan.
Dry millers - of which King Grain is the only one in Canada - are more likely to seek purchases of non-GE corn this fall, because protein can be detected in most dry-milled products. However, this is not certain. King Milling has stated it will not be claiming its products are GE free, since this is impossible to guarantee. Instead, it will say purchased corn was grown from non-GE hybrids and that reasonable steps were taken to ensure separation.
The announcement that Frito-Lay will not purchase GE corn was largely a non event, considering milling-grade corn hybrids are mostly all non GE at the present time. The announcement could affect future plans to provide companies with Frito-Lay corn guaranteed to be mycotoxin-free which biotechnology is expected to eventually provide.
Seagram has announced that it will not purchase GE corn beginning with the 2000 crop. This does not affect Ontario farmers because Seagram buys no corn from Ontario (all ethanol used in Seagram's Amherstburg plant comes from elsewhere). Manitoba farmers who sell corn to Seagram's Gimli plant say that the company has refused to put any requirements in writing. The company has said nothing about other GE ingredients used in whiskey manufacture, such as enzymes.
Cargill has apparently contracted for 5,000 acres of GE free corn (producers are to be paid a premium basis of 50 cents/bu but must grow Cargill hybrids; other quality specifications are not known). Cargill has similar deals in the U.S. - it gives premiums for GE-free corn, but the crop must be grown using purchased inputs from Cargill.
Feed companies, pork producers and marketers continue to explore options of producing identity-preserved, premium-priced pork for export sales, especially to Japan. But so far, no significant volumes have been involved. The Japanese decision to require GE labels only where GE ingredients can be detected (no detection in any livestock products fed from present GE corn or soybeans) has reduced the incentive, although there still may be smaller, premium-priced, niche market opportunities for both pork and corn growers.
Greenpeace, the Council of Canadians and other activist groups continue to put pressure on Canadian grocery store chains to reject foods made from GE ingredients. The letters continue to be sent, often from fictitious addresses, according to grocery store contacts. But grocery stores and most food manufacturers continue to resist this pressure.
Checks with seed companies and informal polls at corn meetings this winter indicate the percentage of GE corn grown in Ontario in 2000 is likely to be about the same as in 1999 - around 35 per cent.
If you are growing non-GE corn expecting premium sales this fall, take reasonable precautions to ensure purity. But sign nothing which implies a guarantee that the resulting crop is GE free. Seed corn companies say that the best purity they can guarantee in seed production and handling is about 98 per cent. (Growers say, to check this, watch the number of plants in fields of Liberty-Link corn that die when the herbicide is applied.) With further mixing via pollen and on-farm handling, this percentage is expected to decrease. It's different from soybeans, which are a self-pollinating crop.
As for guarantees that non-GE crops are grown on land not seeded to GE crops in previous years, these should be treated with skepticism.
Unless there are voluntary plant escapes from the year-one crop growing in the second-year crop, there are no tests to ensure compliance, to our knowledge. Remember that the genes used in making Bt and Liberty-Link corn and Roundup Ready corn came from common soil organisms. Soil will commonly test positive in DNA tests for the active gene. In the case of Roundup Ready corn, the active gene actually comes from corn itself. Only a few nucleotides are changed in the gene, which normally triggers those plant functions which cause death with Roundup treatment. (In RR corn, the gene doesn't work, and the corn plants don't die.)
(posted without permission)
