Did you know that there are already GE-Free Zones in Canada?

• In 2004, Powell River in BC became the first GE Free Zone in the country.
• The Village of Kaslo (January 13, 2009), the City of Rossland (May 11, 2009) and the City of Nelson (November 3, 2008) in BC have all passed GE Free Resolutions.

The Society for a GE Free BC with GE Free Kootenays, and GE Free Yukon are working hard to secure GE Free Zones.

La ville de Rossland, C.-B., adopte une résolution contre les OGM

Le 11 mai 2009: Que la ville de Rossland s'oppose à la culture des plantes et des arbres génétiquement modifiés sur le territoire de la municipalité et que la ville de Rossland n'achète pas de plantes ou d’arbres génétiquement modifiés dans le cadre de ses opérations; et que la ville de Rossland réexamine cette résolution à la lumière de toute nouvelle information qui surviendra; et que la ville de Rossland fasse suivre une copie de cette résolution à la Fédération canadienne des municipalités, la Union of B.C. Municipalities, Interior Health, le Ministère provincial de la santé, le Ministère provincial de l'agriculture et du territoire, le B.C. Provincial Health Officer, le premier ministre du Canada, l'Agence canadienne d'inspection des aliments, Santé Canada, CropLife Canada, Agriculture Canada, les bureaux des députés provinciaux et fédéraux concernés, et tout autre groupe intéressé ou connexe.

City of Nelson Passes GE-Free Resolution

November 3, 2008: "The City of Nelson does not support the cultivation of genetically engineered plants and trees in the Municipality of Nelson and further that council will not purchase for its own operations GE plants or trees. The City of Nelson agrees to revisit this as pertinent new information becomes available that affects this resolution and further that the City of Nelson shall forward copies of the resolution to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Union of BC Municipalities, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, CropLife Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, local MLA and MP offices and any interested and related groups for comment."

Science and technology are not value neutral. Advances in science and technology are often the results of human activity imbued with intention and purpose and embodying the perspectives, purposes and particular objectives of powerful social groups. Current technologies do not equally benefit all segments off society and are not meant to do so. To maximize public support for technological developments and to minimize opposition, technology proponents rarely acknowledge, for example, the distributional inequities and ramifications of what they are proposing.

- From Science and the Disadvantaged, Dr. Gregor Wolbring, Occasional Paper, The Edmonds Institute, 2000.

Les agriculteurs haitiens refusent la "donation" de semences de Monsanto

Ce sont près de 10 000 paysans d'Haïti qui ont marché le vendredi 4 juin afin de manifester leur colère face à la donation par Monsanto dde 475 tonnes de semences hybrides de blé et de légumes. Les images ci-dessous proviennent d'Haïti, ainsi que de Montréal et de Seattle. Les agriculteurs haïtiens ont appelés les groupes de par le monde à "lutter contre Monsanto et ses associés".

le CBAN a organisé une action de solidarité à Montréal, en partenariat avec Union Paysanne (membre du CBAN ainsi que de la Via Campesina), Action SOS Haïti et Haïti 1 semence 1 pays. Une délégation de 4 personnes a rencontré le Consul Général Haïti à Montréal durant une demi-heure afin de l'information sur la problématique. Il y aussi eu une action de solidarité à Seattle. Cliquez ici pour voir des photos d'Haiti et de Montréal.

L’appel à cette action de solidarité a été réalisé par le Mouvement Paysan de Papaye (MPP) avec le soutien de La Via Campesina.

• Haïti : Monsanto et le "Projet Winner"
• le 3 juin 2010 - Communiqué de presse Les agriculteurs d’Haïti disent qu’il faut« brûler les semences de Monsanto » Des organisations du Canada appuient le refus du cadeau empoisonné
• L’appel de solidarité internationale

Monsanto

• est la plus grosse compagnie de semences au monde (représentait 23% du

marché mondial des semences commerciales en 2007). (ETC Groupe)
• est à l’origine d’approximativement 90% des semences transgéniques plantées dans le monde
• est la compagnie qui vend l’herbicide total le plus vendu au monde, le Roundup (glyphosate).
• contrôle les brevets et la recherché sur la technologie Terminator (Monsanto a acheté la compagnie Delta & Pine Land en 2006) – les semences Terminator sont génétiquement modifiées pour être stérile après la première récolte afin d’empêcher les agriculteurs de les garder et les réutiliser.
• contrôle plus de 57% du marché américain des semences de coton. (ETC Groupe)

May 2010: Canada has banned nanotechnology in organic food production. An amendment was added to Canada’s national organic rules banning nanotechnology as a “Prohibited Substance or Method.” The section lists substances or techniques that are prohibited in organic food production, including genetic engineering, synthetic pesticides, irradiation, and cloned animals, among others.

Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter on the scale of the nanometer (one billionth of a meter). Nanoscale science operates in the realm of single atoms and molecules. At present, commercial nanotechnology involves materials science (i.e. researchers have been able to make materials that are stronger and more durable by taking advantage of property changes that occur when substances are reduced to nanoscale dimensions). In the future, as nanoscale molecular self-assembly becomes a commercial reality, nanotech will move into conventional manufacturing. While nanotechnology offers opportunities for society, it also involves profound social and environmental risks, not only because it is an enabling technology to the biotech industry, but also because it involves atomic manipulation and will make possible the fusing of the biological world and the mechanical. There is a critical need to evaluate the social implications of all nanotechnologies; in the meantime, CBAN Supporter ETC group believes that a moratorium should be placed on research involving molecular self-assembly and self-replication.

le 6 décembre, 2010: 60 organismes ont signé la déclaration: «Non à la recherche, non à la production, à l'exportation et à la consommation de poisson OGM au Canada.»

La compagnie AquaBounty a récemment demandé aux autorités réglementaires américaines d’approuver pour la consommation humaine le saumon qu’elle a transformé avec des manipulations génétiques (saumon OGM : organisme génétiquement modifié). L’entreprise affirme en outre vouloir formuler bientôt une demande auprès des autorités canadiennes.

D’après AquaBounty, son saumon «AquAdvantage » atteint une taille commercialisable deux fois plus vite que les saumons d’élevage ordinaires. Cette croissance accélérée a été rendue possible en insérant dans le saumon de l’Atlantique le gène qui, chez le chinook, code l’hormone de croissance, et en y ajoutant du matériel génétique issu de la loquette d’Amérique, un animal dont l’apparence rappelle celle de l’anguille.

Passez à l’action

Écrivez une lettre à la ministre de la santé du Canada.

Marquez votre objection au poisson OGM: Nous invitons les groupes environnementaux, de conservation, du milieu de la santé, les regroupements de consommateurs, les groupes d'intérêt public, les associations industrielles et les organisations des peuples autochtones du Canada à signer la déclaration: Non à la recherche, non à la production, à l'exportation et à la consommation de poisson OGM au Canada.

"Intellectual property" refers to a group of laws - such as patents, Plant Breeders' Rights, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets - intended to protect inventors and artists from losing control over their intellectual creations/ideas. Intellectual property has become a powerful tool for corporations to create monopolies and consolidate market power. Monopoly control over plants, animals and other life forms jeopardizes world food security and threatens to increase the economic insecurity of farming communities. The World Trade Organization is one of a number of intergovernmental bodies that administer multilateral agreements or Conventions on intellectual property.

A great little 3-part series of videos about patents and the impact on North American farmers and seed industry concentration "Seeds of Domination" form the US Organization for Competitive Markets. April 2009.

Legalizing Contamination as "Low Level Presence"

The Canadian Government is proposing to allow contamination of our food supply with genetically engineered foods that have not been approved for safe eating in Canada. Agriculture Canada calls it “Low Level Presence” or LLP.

• Click here to read CBAN's submission on LLP to Agriculture Canada: "Low Level Presence Sacrifices Food Safety for Trade Policy: LLP is indefensible from a public health and safety standpoint"
• November 29, 2011 - Press Release: Federal Government Proposes to Side-Step Health Canada’s Regulation of Genetically Modified Foods: Trade policy would sacrifice safety, say groups.

Click for more information on LLP.

People's Food Policy Calls for GM Phase-Out

From “Resetting the Table: A People’s Food Policy for Canada” which is the result of a collaborative process in which hundreds of people devoted thousands of volunteer hours to create a food policy that genuinely reflects the perspectives of people across the country.

1. Democratize science and technology policy and integrate the precautionary principle into all stages of decision-making.

   

2. Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs) are living pollution that self-replicate. They cannot be recalled or controlled once they have been released and can spread and interbreed with other organisms, thereby contaminating ecosystems and affecting future generations in unforeseeable and uncontrollable ways. Genetically- Modified (GM) crops threaten agro-biodiversity which is fundamental to global food security, as well as threaten the future of organic food and farming through contamination. Existing GM crops should be phased out and there should be no further approvals of GM crops and animals. A just transition process, including financial and technical support, needs to be established to assist farmers to shift back to non-GM seed sources and to adopt ecological agriculture practices.
3. The power over seeds, and potentially breeds, represented by monopoly control has become a mechanism for transferring wealth from farmers and rural communities into the hands of corporations and their shareholders. Canada’s patent legislation should be amended to explicitly disallow the patenting of life, including living organisms and genetic sequences.
4. Protect and support the open and free sharing of non- transgenic seeds and breeds as a fundamental practice of agriculture.
5. Establish a national ban on “terminator” technology and actively support the existing international ban at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Science and Technology for Food and Agriculture

Challenges: Our food system is based on thousands of years of knowledge and innovation by indigenous peoples, farmers, fishers, and cooks. This rich and diverse knowledge is being marginalized as risky technologies facilitate greater concentration, industrialization and industry control in food and farming. Potential threats (often originally introduced as technological fixes for problems caused by previous technologies) range from the more widely-known platforms of synthetic chemicals and genetic engineering to the emerging applications of nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and climate engineering technologies. These are occurring in the context of a global land grab to feed biomass-intensive “green” technologies, and at the expense of food production and ecosystem health. The parallel erosion of biodiversity and community resilience severely undermines people’s capacity to strengthen local food systems, as well as respond to the increasing challenges posed by climate change.

Ways Forward: Decision-making processes regarding science and technology need to be democratized and guided by precaution and common interest if we are to strengthen our ability to feed ourselves, ensure sustainable livelihoods, and protect biodiversity and healthy ecosystems into the future. ‘Science’ should be acknowledged as including all forms of useful knowledge (codified and tacit) coming from diverse forms of learning and practice including indigenous and farmer knowledge and people’s everyday experience of food. By helping to strengthen and expand ecological agriculture, science and technology can play a particularly positive role in facing present and future challenges in food and agriculture.

Click here to see more of the People's Food Policy.

July 2010: Watch panel on the "risks and benefits" of synthetic biology from the US President's Bioethics Commission

May 20, 2010: The J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics Inc announced the laboratory creation of the world's first self-reproducing organism whose entire genome was built from scratch by a machine. Synthetic biology refers to the construction of novel life-forms using synthetic DNA made from off-the-shelf chemicals - a form of "extreme genetic engineering".

Nouveau dépôt du projet de loi interdisant Terminator!

Avril, 2009

Demandez au premier ministre d’appuyer le projet de loi C-353. Le Canada doit interdire la technologie Terminator!

1.Envoyer un courriel instantané.

2. Joignez-vous aux groupes qui appuient la campagne

3. Écrivez une lettre personnelle – ces lettres ont vraiment un impact. Cliquez ici pour accéder à une lettre-type. Vous pouvez envoyer vos lettres aux députés sans affranchissement. Cherchez le nom de votre député au www.parl.gc.ca

4. Vous pouvez obtenir les cartes postales de la campagne Interdire Terminator! Pour les commander, il suffit d’envoyer un courriel à btpostcards@usc-canada.org

Canada-Europe Trade Deal (CETA) Attacks Seeds, Farmers, Food Sovereignty

CBAN has joined the Trade Justice Network to take action. CBAN supports The National Farmers Union's new campaign to stop CETA.

• Trade agreement with Europe threatens Canada’s farmers, by Terry Boehm, President, National Farmers Union, Common Ground Magazine, Nov 2010.
• Video Primer on CETA from the Canadian Auto Workers

Take Action

1. You can write to The Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade: Just click here to send your letter instantly!
2. Download the petition

What is CETA?

The Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) - the trade agreement now being negotiated between Canada and the European Commission will impact on all aspects of our lives. The proposed agreement will jeopardize the ability of governments at all levels to procure goods and services that favour in any way local businesses thereby, for example, destroying arrangements that specifically source local food. Further this agreement is calling for the inclusion of UPOV91 a draconian form of Plant Breeders Rights legislation that will effectively eliminate a farmer’s or citizen’s ability to save, reuse, exchange and sell seed. This agreement is also calling for the inclusion of enforcement procedures to uphold intellectual property rights that would allow for the judicial precautionary seizure of movable and immovable property, and the freezing of bank accounts of the alleged infringer. A farmer could see his/her home, land, equipment, and crops seized and have bank accounts frozen for being accused of using seed (including their own) that has a gene patent or other form of intellectual property attached to it. This agreement is likely to have very negative impacts on our Canadian supply management systems for dairy, poultry and egg farmers as well as the Canadian Wheat Board.

The Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) is already being negotiated! On May 6, 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched negotiations with Europe toward a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement that will go beyond NAFTA in ways that threaten public services and local democracy in Canada. On April 19, 2010, the Trade Justice Network leaked the draft consolidated text of the agreement to start a public debate on the effect the agreement would have on a number of public policy areas in Canada.

European companies see Canada's public services, including water treatment, transportation, energy and even health care, as ripe for privatization. Europe has already requested that GMOs be exempt from the trade agreement but the rights of farmers to save seed are under direct attack from the agreement. CETA would put powerful new tools into the hands of the biotech corporations.

How will CETA affect farmers?

National Farmers Union (NFU) President, Terry Boehm, warns this agreement will further intensify Canada's farm income crisis. "The CETA would mean many changes, but none more negative than its effect to extinguish farmers' rights to save and re-use seeds," states Boehm.

From the National Farmers Union:

Agriculture is a critical economic sector that will be severely affected by the proposed trade agreement with Europe. The trade deal will concentrate even more power in the hands of corporations, at the expense of farmers and food sovereignty.

Corporations Get Powerful New Tools to Control Seeds

The trade deal would give biotech, pharmaceutical, pesticide, seed, and grain companies powerful new tools to force farmers to buy seeds at high prices, on corporate terms. It would give corporations even more power to ultimately decide who farms and how.

Eliminate the Right to Save Seed?

The trade deal would almost entirely eliminate the rights of farmers to save, reuse and sell seed

Plant varieties can be protected as intellectual property through Plant Breeders Rights as well as patents on genes. The trade deal would give rights holders an unprecedented degree of control over seeds and farming by committing Canada to adopt UPOV'91, the draconian 1991 version of The International Convention for the Protection of New Plant Varieties. The inclusion of UPOV'91 in the deal is completely unnecessary and is excessively harmful to Canadian farmers. Seed breeders would have the right to collect royalties on seed at any point in the food chain!

The draft of the trade deal also says that biotech corporations could seize the crops, equipment, and farms - and freeze the bank accounts - of farmers who are deemed patent infringers, like farmers who find unwanted contamination in their fields.

End Supply Management?

The deal would commit Canada to reducing or eliminating agricultural subsidies and other government supports to farmers over time. Supply management systems that have allowed farmers in the dairy, poultry, and egg sectors to earn a decent living are under attack. The Canadian Wheat Board (a farmer controlled grain marketer) is very likely under also threat.

Click here to download the full draft chapter on Intellectual Property.

Other Trade News

November 2009: Contamination crisis deepens as reported GM flax contamination from Canada continues to be found. Canadian flax farmers face depressed prices and their European market is closed.

October 22, 2009. Press Release: European Consumers Warned that Trade Deal with Canada could be used to Weaken GMO Regulations

July 20, 2009. Press Release: Genetically Modified Food: Canada capitulates and abandons fight with Europe at the WTO.

Canada and Europe have signed a bilateral settlement which ends Canada's dispute with the EU at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over genetically modified foods - this leaves the US and Argentina alone in their WTO dispute with Europe over GM food and requires Canada to meet with EU officials twice yearly to discuss GM issues.

The Canadian Government is trying to spin this new agreement as improving market access for GM crops in Europe, but this access already exists and the obstacle for Canadian food exports to Europe is continued consumer rejection. According to Monsanto, by March of this year, the European Commission had already approved all of the GM seeds currently used in Canada.

April 21, 2010 - Press Release, National Farmers Union: Secret Text of Canada-EU Trade Deal Released: The agreement may be the largest single issue on farm-policy horizon

See the National Farmers Union and other unions discuss the impacts on YouTube.