Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As a brief preamble, while flying on WestJet yesterday, I picked up The Globe and Mail, and here is a quote from it by the father of India's green revolution, Dr. Swaminathan:
Genetic modification is a very powerful tool. But like any powerful tool, when using it, you have to take into account the environmental impact, the food safety aspects and so on. There must be a strong regulatory mechanism. If you don’t have it, people won’t have confidence in GM technology.
As Wilf just mentioned, technology is becoming cheap and available, and we must have more than just science taking a look at it.
I am a first generation farmer who, after a stint at U of M pursuing an undergrad degree in entomology and monogastric nutrition, has turned our farm into an export company, a seed processor, and a pollination broker. Along with my brother, Lee, we employ 15 staff.
As a professional agrologist and seedsman, I have enjoyed working alongside our provincial agriculture minister on both the appointed FRDC seed board. I have toured the province extensively, both as a seed buyer and retailer and an executive member of Keystone Agricultural Producers. Currently I am serving on the executive of the Northern Seed Trade Association, an international seed trade group; the Manitoba Organic Alliance; and also as a board member of the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board. I am in weekly conversations with our trade customers, both in the EU and U.S.A., for both conventional and certified organic seed species.
Canada is a nation of oligopolies. We have a relatively small farm economy that can easily be manipulated by the railways, the grain merchants, and the agricultural input suppliers.
I submit that political oversight is needed to help farmers be competitive in the world economy. American bankers have, until recently, sneered at our so-called socialist banking systems. American oilmen have scoffed at our excessive offshore drilling safety rules. Now the life science corporations are complaining that political oversight will be restrictive toward their bid to gain market share in Canada's seed trade.
I believe in good science and modern plant breeding. I also believe in good democracy and, maybe naively, that our members of Parliament represent a public good for the majority of their constituents.
You are told that life science companies will not supply Canada with the latest genetics and that the additional hurdle Bill C-474 imposes on the registry approval process will not be in the best interests of Canadian farmers. You are told that it may cost $100 million and 10 years of work to develop a new GM crop, but as Wilf just alluded to, you're not told that Dow AgroSciences has a new DNA sequencing technology available today that cuts costs in half for breeding new traits. We are on the cusp of a revolution in plant breeding that will dramatically speed up the time it takes to insert new genes into crop species.
The argument that this new political uncertainty will drive up expenses and limit R and D dollars is groundless because, going forward, plant breeding will be far cheaper and easier than it has been in recent history. You are told by the CSTA that seedsmen are in favour of Roundup Ready alfalfa in this bill. Have you had time to ask the forage crops committee at the CSTA what their opinion is?
I was at the Winnipeg airport over two years ago when 25 members of the CSTA from across Canada met with Forage Genetics and Monsanto. The chair took a straw poll, and all but three companies present were opposed to or had reservations about introducing Roundup Ready alfalfa into Canada. But after some effective lobbying by Monsanto and others, there was a change of heart.
As a seed company CEO responsible for the livelihood of your fellow employees, would you risk ticking off in a public forum the biggest supplier of genetics? Would CSTA risk the support dollars of their largest corporate donors?
Our small company pays $3,000 per year for membership fees to the CSTA on approximately $2.5 million to $3 million in seed sales. Monsanto would pay 10 or 20 times that much for its CSTA dues. So would the CSTA executive risk their careers to go against the flow? I'm not talking about influence peddling or anything illegal, but when you have a large customer, you do what it takes to get the job done.
Speaking of customers, specifically my European friends, who buy over half of Canada's trefoil and 20% of our $142 million forage seed exports, they are stubborn on the GM issue.
As we all know, the Europeans have promised more open trade policies towards GM-traded foodstuffs. I would love to see a reasonable, low-level presence threshold for unapproved trades, but it may come as a surprise to you that over in Europe, farmers do have political clout. They're enjoying a beautiful GATT-green, WTO-green, non-tariff trade barrier by not allowing GM crops into their system. Why would they want to open up their market to world competition? Why would they want to dismantle it? I have many close European friends, and they think it will be a long time before GM traits will be allowed across the continent. Don't bet the farm on low-level adventitious presence thresholds coming any time soon.
Currently, I'm restructuring my seed company with legal firewalls that will limit our exposure to a lawsuit from Europe when they discover Roundup Ready alfalfa genes in any given seed lot. Cal/West and other American seed companies have already discovered Roundup Ready alfalfa genes in their breeding programs, and it'll be in Canada sooner than we think.
I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I really dislike public speaking, and I have heard from Manitoba friends who have testified here that committee members can turn your words around and grandstand and make you look a fool, but I have the respect of my customers, growers, and employees, and you will not take that away from me.
Thank you.