>From: Biotech Activists
>Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 3:38 AM
>To: mnoble@msawg.org
>Subject: TRIPLE-RESISTANT CANOLA WEEDS FOUND IN ALTA., ag net edited
>
>
>================================
>From List: Biotech Activists (biotech_activists@iatp.org)
>Date Posted: 02/11/2000
>Posted by: mritchie@iatp.org
>===============================
>
>
>TRIPLE-RESISTANT CANOLA WEEDS FOUND IN ALTA.
>February 10, 2000
>Western Producer
>Mary MacArthur, Camrose bureau
>http://www.producer.com/articles/20000210/news/20000210news01.html
Scientists have long said the use of herbicide-tolerant canola would
eventually, according to this story, result in super-resistant plants. Now
they've been proven right.
>The story says that volunteer canola resistant to three herbicide-tolerant
canola systems has been found in a field in northern Alberta. Alberta
Agriculture canola specialist Phil Thomas was quoted as saying, "We knew it
was going to happen. It was only a matter of when." A series of chemical
and DNA tests confirm the weeds in Tony Huether's field near Sexsmith are
resistant to Roundup, Liberty and Pursuit chemicals. Denise Maurice,
agronomy manager with Westco Fertilizers, a fertilizer sales company, was
cited as saying it's the first official case of natural gene stacking in
canola since genetically modified canola was adopted by farmers five years
ago.
>Canola scientist Keith Downey, who created modern canola, wangs cited as
sayi the triple-resistant canola isn't a great problem, adding, "We haven't
created a superweed or anything like that." He said that adding 2,4-D or a
similar herbicide to a chemical mix will kill any wayward weeds, noting, "I
don't think it means anything to consumers."
>Jenny Hillard, vice-president of the Consumer Association of Canada, was
cited as saying this will just be another "horror story" tossed about to
frighten consumers, adding, "The backlash now is so little based on fact, I
know it won't make it any worse. The general public hasn't a clue of what's
going on. They're frightened with so little science behind their fears.
They need to get a handle on this or we'll lose the whole damn technology."
Still, the story says, farmers like Huether have begun to question the
technology that led to the canola stew in his field. The gene crossings
have prompted him to stop growing genetically modified canola, adding, "I
wouldn't say I'd never do it again, but the way I feel, it's for the best
interest of the consumer that I don't."
>The story says that Huether seeded two fields of canola in 1997. On the
west side of a county road he planted Quest, a canola tolerant of
Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. On the east side of the road he planted 20
acres of Innovator, a canola tolerant of Aventis's Liberty herbicide. The
rest of the 140-acre field was planted to 45A71, a Smart canola tolerant to
Cyanamid's Pursuit and Odyssey herbicides. All are Argentine types. The two
fields are about 30 metres apart. The year after he planted the field, he
discovered volunteer weeds resistant to Roundup where none had been
planted. Double resistance was confirmed the first year. The next year,
triple resistance was confirmed. Triple resistance can't happen in one
year, said Downey. The mixing of all three herbicide-tolerant types has
been blamed on a combination of bees and wind that carry pollen between
plants in fields too close together. Researchers now recommend at least 200
metres between genetically modified canola varieties and any other canola
field to prevent gene crossing.
>Huether was further cited as saying he is bothered by the secrecy
surrounding the field tests adding, "Many plants were taken and a lot of
seeds taken and grown out in the lab and sprayed with herbicide, and DNA
tests done on it, and the results are not being made public. I feel that
should be made public." Huether points his finger at the close relationship
between chemical companies and government scientists, stating, "It's hush
hush because research is funded to a large extent by big business. I'm
losing more and more confidence in the whole system of research and how
things are approved." Carman Read, with Monsanto, was cited as saying the
company had nothing to do with the Alberta Agriculture study and hasn't
influenced Alberta Agriculture to withhold the results. John Huffman, an
Alberta Agriculture crop specialist who worked with Huether to identify the
problems, was cited as saying the report will likely be released in two weeks.
>
>
>Mark Ritchie, President
>Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
>2105 First Ave. South
>Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 USA
>612-870-3400 (phone) 612-870-4846 (fax)
>cell phone 612-385-7921
>mritchie@iatp.org www.iatp.org
>
>
>
>===============================
>How to Use this Mailing List
>===============================
>
>You received this e-mail as a result of your registration on the
biotech_activists mailing list.
>To unsubscribe, please send an email to listserv@iatp.org. In the body of
the message type:
>unsubscribe biotech_activists
>To post messages, send email to biotech_activists@iatp.org.
>For a list of other commands and list options, please send email to
listserv@iatp.org.
>In the body of the message type:
>help
>
>For other questions email support@iatp.org
>
>
>
>
Rick Welsh
Henry A Wallace Center for Agricultural and
Environmental Policy of Winrock International
9200 Edmonston Rd Ste 117
Greenbelt MD 20770-1551
Phone: 301-441-8777
Fax: 301-220-0164
Web site: www.hawiaa.org
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Mar 12 2000 - 14:00:30 EST