Agriculture Committee on June 7th, 2010

[Kurt Shmon]

The other markets are already tapped into by the United States. We had an opportunity to obtain their market share, which they lost due to contamination. As I said, I view this as an opportunity for me to go into Saudi Arabia and to some of the other markets where the U.S. has lost market share because of contamination.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Okay. I just want to be clear. Would that be the baling side of things, too, or is that just the seed side of it?

[Kurt Shmon]

I'm strictly seed.

[Jim Lintott]

Yes. That would be true also on the baling side.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

But on the baling side—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

His time has expired, but you get the last five minutes anyway to take you to the end. I just want to let you know that.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Chair. That's really nice of you.

On the compressed hay, there's just no way to keep contaminants out of that situation. You could have the odd Roundup Ready canola or Liberty Link canola in that hay. That's already there. Is that not fair to say?

[Kurt Shmon]

In the hay?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Yes, if you're doing compressed hay, compressed forages.

[Jim Lintott]

No. In the hay program, of course, it's easy to remove any canola. We're talking about—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Because of when your cutting periods times are.

[Jim Lintott]

It would only be in the first year that you would have the issue occurring. Then, of course, either you would move it into a different use or you'd spray it to take out your canola or any other GMO that might be there so you could move it into the export market. But it would only show up in the first year.

That's the thing about forages in general. Any wheat issues you solve by just cutting the hay once, and then after that, because it's perennial, you eliminate the wheat issues, which is the thing that perplexes us about Roundup Ready alfalfa. Who actually wants it? We have a hard time finding where the big market is for it.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Yes.

I'm going to go back to low-level presence. We all know that you're going to have infection from wheat seeds. You're going to have infection of other GM varieties through different wheat. You can't get it 100% clean. So 1% would probably be an acceptable level for foreign content. I'm not sure what your rules are when you're exporting seed. What is your foreign content acceptance level?

[Kurt Shmon]

When I export seed into Europe, the contracts are written up “free of GMO seed”, understanding that there is a seed difference in size--

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I understand that.

[Kurt Shmon]

--from canola to the articles we're talking about. Plus, my farmers, my fellow colleagues, go through extraordinary steps to make sure they do not contaminate the seeds in the field, through the processing of the seeds in harvesting it, or on the farm through bins. So we are already dealing with this, and we've been able to maintain it for, realistically, the last 12 to 13 years.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

So you've set up a system much like that of the soybean growers who were here last week. They said one grower was a GMO-free soybean grower. He received a premium for it in his markets because they were non-GMO.

So you've already set up a system to handle that?

[Kurt Shmon]

No. We've set up a system to make sure there are no other GMO species. In the case of Roundup Ready alfalfa, you can't tell it from the conventional type. It's impossible. You can't tell the plants apart.

We have set this up to take care of our other three crops: canola, soybean, and corn. We've taken extraordinary steps to ensure we can maintain our market share through our producers working extra hard to keep those contaminants out of their fields, and through the separate processing. If it is discovered, the seed stays here.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'm just kind of curious. You talked about cross-pollination and the threat of cross-pollination. We talked about the situation in the U.S. The way things are happening in the U.S., it looks to me like they'll go to Roundup Ready alfalfa.

If that scenario unfolds, how are we going to handle it here in Canada?

[Jim Lintott]

That's the challenge. It's going to be very costly.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It comes back to the low-level presence being such an important factor in anything we do. Is that not correct?

[Kurt Shmon]

A low-level presence would allow market acceptance, but then again, does the Government of Canada want Roundup Ready alfalfa on our land?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I guess--

[Kurt Shmon]

In your national parks, do you want Roundup Ready alfalfa to be cross-contaminated and growing in the parks?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

But this is the--