Farmers taking GM fight to Ottawa

SASKATOON - A group of prairie farmers plans to take concerns about
genetically modified (GM) wheat to Ottawa. They are seeking a
moratorium on the product until their concerns are met.

"We will be telling them a moratorium should be put on the
registration of GM wheat..." - Neal Hardy Saskatchewan farmers say
that if Ottawa doesn't listen, and markets are lost, someone should
have to pay for those losses. The Canadian Wheat Board claims that
more than 80 per cent of its customers won't buy genetically modified
wheat. The board and some farm groups say if Ottawa approves
Monsanto's application to introduce its Roundup Ready wheat, the whole
industry will suffer.

They will take that message to the Senate's Agriculture Committee in
Ottawa early next month. Neal Hardy, the President of the Saskatchewan
Association of Rural Municipalities, says his group will have a clear
message for the committee.

"We will be telling them a moratorium should be put on the
registration of GM wheat until such time as the market accepts it or
there are ways to keep it separate," says Hardy.

He has no problem with the science of GM wheat, saying that someday it
will be accepted in the marketplace. Until then he says someone should
have to pay if GM wheat is approved, and farmers lose markets as a
result of the move.

"If you're going to allow it out there, we need to have something in
legislation or regulations that protects the rest of us from getting
it contaminated into our product that we don't want to grow. And who
is going to be responsible," Hardy says.

He describes it as sort of a liability clause. Under the current
rules, federal officials look at food safety issues when assessing
Monsanto's application, not market acceptance.