Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I work in Ottawa as the coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. The network is a collaborative of 16 organizations across Canada, including international development organizations like InterPares and USC, farm associations and grassroots co

Agriculture committee  Generally we have the concerns that in setting up the mandate itself there's a support for an immature industry—or there are very many scenarios for what the industry will look like, and we don't yet know what the shape of the industry will be, even what feedstocks we will use an

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely.

Agriculture committee  I do know, as you referred to, that in the Yukon there has been this petition presented to ask for a GE-free zone. We work with coalitions on the ground in British Columbia, quite a wide coalition, the Society for a G.E. Free B.C., which is working towards that goal of a GE-free

Agriculture committee  Thank you. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network is concerned with greenhouse gas emissions and the life cycle of various feedstocks, but that's not our expertise and so perhaps we would refer you to other witnesses. I think tomorrow there's another group that has an experti

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Yes, I do see that there's a major problem in tracking health effects, because there's no mandatory labelling or post-market surveillance of foods. But even outside of that, we see already, as I mentioned, some contamination events. Crops that were not approved for h

Agriculture committee  I would, except the tree would then have to exist in plantation form. What we want to see is the protection of our forests from climate change, which is certainly where the pine beetle is finding its home. In that respect, when we refer to dangerous climate change, the pine bee

Agriculture committee  To conclude, in response, we have at least two very distinct concerns in relation to genetically engineered crops. One is the adequacy of the regulation to determine the health impacts and then the problem of contamination of the environment, which is ending up with these unsuita

Agriculture committee  Those are not a product of genetic modification.

Agriculture committee  We define genetic engineering as the exchange of genes from one organism to another.

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry, the question didn't come through. I am sorry.

Agriculture committee  We haven't. No.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you, committee members, for inviting me here today on behalf of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network to speak to you about the issue of genetic engineering. It is important to evaluate what we have learned about genetic engineering from our 15 year

Agriculture committee  It's a very interesting and exciting idea to bring forward at this time, because we have 15 years of experience with genetically engineered crops. The Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee was established by the Canadian biotechnology strategy, which also will soon have an

Agriculture committee  I think it's possible that there are a number of models around the world, Argentina being one, where countries are also looking at what the issues are for them with genetically engineered crops. Argentina and Brazil are huge producers of GM soy, and Argentina chose to look at the