Good morning.
My name is Robert Saik. I presented you a written submission of the top 20 GMO FAQs written by me and Robert Wager. I represent a science-based initiative called Know Ideas Media. We draw up a new science video pertaining to agriculture every Friday on YouTube and Facebook. I'd like to tell you a story about apples and grapefruit—not quite apples and oranges.
When I was growing up our grapefruit were always white-fleshed, but today if you eat grapefruit it is red-fleshed. The grapefruit became red-fleshed because science and plant breeders exposed grapefruit to nuclear radiation, specifically gamma radiation that scrambled the chromosomal complex of the grapefruit, turning it from white-fleshed to red-fleshed. That's why you have red-fleshed grapefruit today. This is called mutagenesis. It's a scrambling of chromosomal complex. It's a breeding process.
Now let's go to the apple. In the Okanagan, scientists have figured out how to flick off three to four enzymes inside an apple to prevent the apple from growing brown. You have three to four enzymes flicked off in an apple and you have a chromosomal complex scrambled with nuclear radiation.
My question to you is which one is GMO? The apple is GMO. This, paradoxically, could be labelled organic, non-GMO even though the chromosomal complex was scrambled with nuclear radiation.
The public does not understand that GMO is a poor monitor for modern breeding processes. It's not an ingredient. In Canada we have all kinds of examples of people benefiting from GMO technology. If you know of anybody who is being kept alive through insulin injections, they are using GMO medicines. Hemophiliacs are being kept alive through GMO medicines, and most of the hard cheese that we eat in North America is GMO because the coagulant is a GMO or genetically engineered coagulant called chymosin. In Canada we register our products based on novel traits. I would encourage the standing committee to fight for that and to retain that in Canada, because it's a level-headed approach to how we look at and study the breeding processes and the crops and livestock that are being brought forward.
However, activists are pushing fear, uncertainty and doubt onto the consumers. It's estimated that between $2.5 billion and $3 billion is circulated annually through activist organizations bent on spinning fear, uncertainty and doubt. They do this because they have an agenda, and part of that agenda is to drive up food costs based on labels. What kind of labels? When you go to the grocery store you will see a non-GMO butterfly sticker, and that sticker appears on things like non-GMO maple syrup. There aren't any genetically engineered maple trees. Non-GMO Catelli pasta; there isn't any genetically engineered durum wheat. Non-GMO Hunt's tomato sauce; there isn't any genetically engineered tomato sauce. Non-GMO Himalayan rock salt, non-GMO tea, non-GMO seaweed extract, non-GMO coconuts, non-GMO spinach, non-GMO lettuce, non-GMO bacon.
I'm calling for four things.
First, help the public to understand that GMO genetic engineering is not an ingredient. It's a very poor monitor for a description of modern breeding processes.
Two, uphold the institutions that we have. Health Canada's recent ruling on glyphosate would be an example that also recognizes that the novel trait registration system we have in this country is a strong one.
Three, recognize that activists are pushing forward with a fear-based agenda to underpin or to create uncertainty in the marketplace.
Lastly, I am calling on the committee to call on CFIA to act to remove from the grocery store shelves false and misleading labels that are creating fear, uncertainty and doubt among consumers.
Thank you for your time today.