Canola Quick Facts
Canola Facts: Science-Based Regulatory Approvals for GM Crops
Here are some key facts about the importance of the registration process for GM canola.
The Canola Council wholly supports science-based regulatory regimes that ensure the safety of
a crop for human and animal consumption, and for the environment.
Canada’s canola industry has imposed upon itself voluntary restraints to prevent any
biotech trait from being approved in Canada unless it first meets the regulatory requirements
of our key customer countries.
No key canola customer country has rejected Canadian GM canola. All have passed regulations
that specify the GM canola varieties grown in Canada are safe for humans, animals and the
environment.
Despite well organized lobbies from organizations like Greenpeace, key markets such as
Japan and Mexico continue to use and advocate science-based safety evaluations in order
to determine whether to permit the importation of GM crops.
The EU has a canola/rapeseed production base and they have demonstrated that they can and will use GM status as a means to control imports.
If Canada were to move away from a science-based regulatory approval process, there would be severe consequences for the canola industry.
Key customers would no longer be able to cite the Canadian example of science-based regulatory
approvals as justification for maintaining similar systems in their own countries.
The potential for other countries, particularly those that grow rapeseed, to use non-science
based criteria in order to control imports will be justified on the basis that Canada no
longer has a solely science-based system.
Many smaller countries, including several to which the Canadian industry wishes to market canola,
are considering implementation of rules governing the importation of GM technology. A change to
Canadian regulations could tip the balance against science-based criteria in many of these countries
and create uncertainty with respect to the security of trade flows.
Canadian farmers face competition from oilseeds produced in developing countries such as Brazil
and from highly subsidized countries like the U.S. and the EU.
The adoption of new technology has been key to the Canadian industry’s development and will
be key to its survival in the face of ever increasing global competition.
If the regulatory process governing the introduction of new technology were expanded to include
non-science criteria, the potential for activist intervention in the process would be significant
and create risk for investors in Canadian canola research.
Given that Canada is the major canola production region and that the crop is relatively small
when compared to competitors such soybeans and palm, uncertainly about the Canadian regulatory
process would divert research and development from canola into soybeans.
To preserve export markets and ensure continued research and development in canola, the Canadian
canola industry supports continuation of a science-based regulatory system governing the
introduction of GM technology.
November 1, 2005
« back