by Common Ground Staff

The May 21 Supreme Court decision extending patent protection to genetically engineered plants continues to put us on a course that is seriously out of step with most other countries, according to Canada's leading organization for natural health products. The Canadian Health Food Association says that genetically engineered crop risks directly threaten Canada's system of organic farming and fly in the face of a majority of Canadians who want the right to know if foods have been genetically engineered (GE).

"There is still no reliable science on the risk of GE foods, other than research supplied by biotech companies themselves, an issue that the federal government has continued to ignore" says Valerie Bell, president of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA). "In contrast, the European Union, Japan, Australia and China have had moratoriums on GE foods and mandatory consumer labelling for foods containing GE ingredients since 1998."

Canada has no mandatory GE labeling laws despite polls which consistently show that over 90 percent of Canadians want the right to choose whether or not to buy foods containing transgenic ingredients, Bell adds.

Bell says that today's decision directly threatens the integrity of Canada’s food supply and its system of organic farming. "Studies in Scotland, Germany, Denmark and Canada have proved that environmental drift of GE plants is contaminating organic crops and remains a real risk," she states.

"GE crops have been found to interbreed with related wild weeds or other species over distances of at least 4 km."

"Crop contamination, combined with a lack of mandatory labelling, leave Canadians totally unprotected from possible risks of GE foods. Essentially our government has taken away our freedom of choice to make decisions on what we eat to remain healthy," says Bell.

The CHFA is Canada's largest trade organization representing retailers and suppliers of natural health products.

www.chfa.ca or 1-800-661-4510