Ottawa. April 9, 2013 – At noon today, over 110 local farmers from counties around Ottawa rallied outside the office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), 59 Camelot Drive in Ottawa, with supporting consumers including several young families. The CFIA office is where a final decision to allow genetically modified (GM) alfalfa onto the market could be made any day, a decision that local farmers say would put their livelihoods, and family farming across Canada, at risk.
Ottawa. April 9, 2013 – At noon today, over 110 local farmers from counties around Ottawa rallied outside the office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), 59 Camelot Drive in Ottawa, with supporting consumers including several young families. The CFIA office is where a final decision to allow genetically modified (GM) alfalfa onto the market could be made any day, a decision that local farmers say would put their livelihoods, and family farming across Canada, at risk.
The protest was organized by farmers in NFU Local 362 – Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Ottawa, Prescott-Russell, and NFU Local 310 – Lanark, in response to an urgent call for action from the National Farmers Union-Ontario which named April 9 as the Day of Action to Stop GM Alfalfa. 38 similar rallies were held across Canada: 17 farmer-led events in Ontario today, with 21 actions in other provinces.
“I don’t want GM alfalfa contaminating the pasture for my grassfed cattle,” said Paul Slomp who raises grassfed beef in Manotick Station outside Ottawa. “None of us would be able to keep this GM plant from trespassing into our fields and contaminating the food we produce for our consumers.”
US company Forage Genetics International wants to release alfalfa seeds with Monsanto’s GM herbicide tolerant (Roundup Ready) technology this year, and says it will introduce GM alfalfa into Eastern Canada first.
“We’re struggling to find even one farmer in our area who wants to use this GM alfalfa. Most farmers will pay dearly if GM alfalfa is allowed onto the market,” said Hilary Moore, President of the Lanark National Farmers Union Local 310 and organic farmer.
“Someone in government needs to take responsibility for this GM crop,” said Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, who was also at today’s Ottawa protest, “Our government doesn’t even consider the potential economic costs before it allows GM crops like this onto the market. Farmers are left to bare the costs of GM contamination, which in the case of alfalfa would be borne by many types of family farmer across Canada.”
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For more information: Paul Slomp, National Farmers Union, 613 898 9136 ; Hilary Moore, National Farmers Union Lanark Local, 613 259 2177; Lucy Sharratt, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. 613 241 2267 ext 25