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Last September, the Flax Council of Canada (FCC)
announced that an unapproved variety of genetically modified
flax was detected in food products in Europe. The GM flax
variety was identified as FP967 or "Triffid," which had been
developed in Canada, but was never commercialized and has been
illegal to grow in Canada since 2001. Since the initial
announcement last September, GM flax contamination has been
reported in 35 countries.
The contamination has decimated Canada's flax exports to Europe,
which buys 70% of Canada's flax exports worth an estimated $321
million (Canadian). The European Union has zero tolerance for
unapproved GMOs.
More than six months later disturbing questions remain about the
GM flax contamination:
How did the contamination
happen?
No one knows for sure how a GM flax variety that had been
removed from the market eight years earlier ended up
contaminating food products in 35 countries. According to the
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, by 2001, 40 seed growers
were multiplying 200,000 bushels of GM seed for future demand.
One theory is that some flax growers continued to grow the
variety even after the Canadian flax industry decided not to
allow commercial production of GM flax.
According to an article in the Manitoba Co-operator, extensive
sample testing from across Canada's flax-growing regions found
the Triffid contamination could not be isolated to one area. It
was present in minute quantities throughout the system. Testing
in March by Canada's Crop Development Centre found low levels of
Triffid in seed used by flax breeders.
Triffid's developer Alan McHughen passed out packets of Triffid
seed to farmers 10 years ago, but he says the packets contained
only 30 seeds and were distributed with the provision that they
wouldn't be planted for commercial use. "It's impossible for the
current contamination to be caused by these packets," McHughen
says.
Why did the Flax Council of
Canada wait until September to acknowledge the contamination
problem?
An FCC press release dated October 30, 2009 states "In July 2009
a commercial laboratory in the EU detected a low level presence
of genetically modified material in a shipment of Canadian
flaxseed to the EU." FCC made the contamination problem public
in September.
But an industry source who wishes to remain anonymous told The
Organic & Non-GMO Report that the FCC was first notified of the
contamination problem in March 2009.
Calls and emails to Barry Hall, executive director of the Flax
Council of Canada, to ask him about this and other questions
were not returned.
Was another GM flax variety
involved in the contamination?
There were several GM flax varieties, including FP968 that had
been developed, according to Alan McHughen. Could one of these
other varieties have been the source of the contamination?
McHughen says this is unlikely. "Triffid (FP967) had the most
seed stock. There were only a couple of thousand pounds at most
of the other varieties."
Why was the lab that first discovered the contamination not
included on FCC's list of labs approved to test for Triffid?
In January, FCC published a list of laboratories approved to
test flax samples for the presence of Triffid. The laboratory
that first discovered the contamination, Genetic ID, was not on
the list of approved labs even though Genetic ID is listed on
the Canadian Grain Commission's website as a laboratory
proficient in testing flaxseed samples. An industry source said
the exclusion of Genetic ID was "an obvious attempt to shoot the
messenger."
Why hasn't FCC released an
event-specific GMO test for Triffid after announcing in October
that it would?
On October 9, 2009, FCC announced that the National Research
Council Plant Biotechnology Institute and DNA Landmarks were
developing a test that would detect the Triffid GMO "event." FCC
said "the organizations anticipate having a PCR protocol
available for validation testing by October 15, 2009." The
protocol has not yet been released.