Evidence of meeting #51 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was canola.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
But it didn't seem to be rampant. I will not argue that there were no cases of cross-contamination.
12:25 p.m.
Past President, Canadian Organic Growers
Organic farmers on the Prairies have a lot of respect. There are 1.2 million acres of organic land in the province of Saskatchewan alone. There are 1,200 organic farmers. From my farm to town, which is seven miles, there are about three organic farmers, interspersed, and we respect each other. But they don't understand. They assume they have no responsibility to keep that GMO product on their land.
It works for spray, because you can stay back or you can wait for the wind to blow in the other direction. But it doesn't work for GM. There's got to be some way of not putting out these crops that are going to proliferate and destroy somebody else's market. There's no reason we have to have it. And the consumers don't want it. If you label GM canola, if you put GM labelling in Canada, you won't be selling much GM crop. The consumers don't want it.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
But what I'm detecting is that.... As I was saying, the organic sector would prefer to see a moratorium on GM-type issues, which would actually harm.... You don't seem to be saying to the government, be vigilant, be attentive, do your research, make sure you have good regulations. I haven't heard that. What I've heard is, put a moratorium on it, this is a threat to our sector and we want it ended. It's not a middle-ground kind of solution.
12:25 p.m.
Past President, Canadian Organic Growers
I know you say it's not realistic, but it is something we need. We need to stop it, revisit it, and then start looking at where we're going to go.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
But then you're taking choice away from all the canola farmers who want to grow canola. You're taking that from them because you're worried.
12:25 p.m.
Past President, Canadian Organic Growers
But you know what? We were here first.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Okay, you can continue that, then.
Thank you.
Ms. Bonsant, five minutes.
February 17th, 2011 / 12:25 p.m.
Bloc
France Bonsant Bloc Compton—Stanstead, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Gentlemen, I am very happy to hear what you have to say. It's always a little emotional to hear discussions about GMO and non-GMO products. What bothers me the most in all of this is that Mr. Lemieux said that you criticize people who want to grow GMO products because it's their choice, but he never takes the side of those people who want to have non-GMO products. I'm not saying this because I'm against GMOs, but in life, you need to have the choice. Also, I support mandatory labelling. I want to have a choice with my food. What you mentioned, Mr. Taylor, made me think a little. There are advertisements that say, "You are what you eat", and it's true. If I don't want to buy tomatoes that contain scorpion venom to prevent freezing, I would like to know that.
Ms. Blay-Palmer, you said earlier that there is a large market for organic products developing outside Canada, like in Europe, for example. Can you tell me what the organic products industry represents to Canada, in billions of dollars? It's not small potatoes. It's big business.
12:30 p.m.
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Arnold might be able to....
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
12:30 p.m.
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
It's tens of billions of dollars.
12:30 p.m.
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
It's substantial, and it's the fastest-growing market in the world in the agricultural sector.
12:30 p.m.
Past President, Canadian Organic Growers
I'm going to throw out a figure: $20 billion. But I don't....
12:30 p.m.
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
It's very substantial. One of the reasons that companies like Wal-Mart, for example, are interested in getting into the organic market is because it is one of the fastest-growing markets in developed countries. So that's the appeal.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
France Bonsant Bloc Compton—Stanstead, QC
This isn't just the case in emerging countries. I see the young generation—my daughters, for example—wanting organic products free from pesticides, without junk. Almost everywhere, I see the desire for food sovereignty and to buy locally. I don't know about the other provinces, but it's especially the case in Quebec. It's very important for me.
Mr. Black, you have an organic farm, which has been there for a number of generations. With contamination, I'm sure that you would lose income. Are you afraid of losing your farm one day if everything gets contaminated?
12:30 p.m.
As an Individual
Thank you.
I'm very concerned. I've been able to somewhat separate myself until such time as—the alfalfa is the real looming.... I didn't grow canola before, so that really didn't affect me. But alfalfa, I grow a lot of that. It both feeds my livestock—I have a dairy farm—and I also grow crops. It's integral to both of them, and all of a sudden now it's on my doorstep. As I said, there's a test plot 40 miles away, and if that wind blows it 10 miles every year closer to me, I don't have a lot of time left. If it becomes widely spread—unconditional release—then I might have less time than that.
So it is on my doorstep, and it's going to determine whether I can continue or not. As far as I understand at this point in time, I'll be subject to no compensation. So that's why I did raise that question. I'd sure like to know what I'm supposed to do in the event that I can no longer do what I'm doing.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
France Bonsant Bloc Compton—Stanstead, QC
And you, Mr. Taylor, are you concerned about the contamination of your soil and losing your farm, as well?
12:30 p.m.
Past President, Canadian Organic Growers
I'm concerned that organic agriculture is severely threatened. We lost canola as a crop, and we ate that, basically. We've lost it. It's a big market, and if we had kept canola, and if they had kept that segregation system in place and whatever they could have done with buffer zones, or everything else that could have been done, it would have been highly profitable for my farm to continue growing canola. I had to quit growing canola and switch to mustard and flax—much smaller markets. No easier to grow, but much smaller markets and probably a lower price. So we lost that crop.
The biggest threat right now is alfalfa, because it's a soil builder. You mentioned about modulation and how alfalfa fixes nitrogen in the soil. For free, you just seed it. I had alfalfa and clover 10 feet high last year. We plowed it all in. That's benefits for years and years. It's not for free, but I don't have to go buy it in a bag. It's there on my land, and that's what I'm going to lose. If I lose alfalfa—if Larry loses alfalfa, he's going to have to try to find some other way to fix nitrogen and to feed his cows.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Conservative