| Lobby Canadian PM/agribiz giant warns Canada against GM wheat (7/4/2004) | |
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1.PLEASE SEND A FAX TO THE CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER TODAY 1.PLEASE SEND A FAX TO THE CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER TODAY PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY Greenpeace needs your help in the fight against GE wheat. For the past several years, the Canadian government has been collaborating with Monsanto on the development of Monsanto's GE Roundup Ready wheat. This is despite near-unanimous protest from farmers, environmentalists and wheat buyers around the world. Canada continues to allow open air field trials that could contaminate farmers fields and also refuses to reject Monsanto's application for commercial growing of GE wheat. They need to hear from the world that no one wants GE wheat! Ask Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to Say NO to Monsanto and YES to the environment. Fax the Canadian Prime Minister TODAY at: NOTE: If you are outside of Canada or the US, please ignore the 'Province' and 'Postal Code' fields. Canada farmers should be wary of GM wheat - Andreas WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Canada and its farmers need to tread gingerly when considering how to approve and handle genetically modified wheat, the chief executive of Archer Daniels Midland Co., one of the world's largest food processors, said yesterday. ADM does not advocate for or against genetically modified crops, but rather focuses on giving customers what they want, G. Allen Andreas told Reuters on the sidelines of the Canada Grains Council conference. "So if you get a lot of backlash across the world of people who are not interested in consuming bread that is made with genetically enhanced wheat, then farmers clearly have to take a very serious look at this, and so does the country of Canada," Andreas said. Canadian and U.S. regulators are examining the food, feed and environmental safety of a variety of genetically modified wheat from Monsanto Co. (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) designed to withstand a popular weedkiller. Monsanto has promised it will not commercialize the wheat until it can keep it separate from traditional wheat, and demonstrate it has willing buyers for the product. But the possibility of government approvals has caused alarm for the Canadian Wheat Board, which has a monopoly on bread wheat sales from Canada's main growing region. The CWB has said buyers of 87 percent of its wheat in the 2002-03 marketing year required guarantees the wheat was not genetically modified. The CWB worries government approval of the wheat would render those guarantees worthless, even if Monsanto holds back from selling seed to farmers. Andreas said he thinks it's inevitable that farmers will have more genetically modified crops to grow in the future, and said he believes consumers are coming around to the idea of GM wheat. "But to be the pioneer out there when the rest of the world doesn't accept your product is not something that you should ask of any farmer of any country today," Andreas said. ADM owns more than 20 percent of Agricore United (AU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) , Canada's largest grain company. |
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