The Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA); Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada (CSAAC) and Canadian Seed Institute announced plans Tuesday to seek approval from their respective boards and memberships for a four-way amalgamation.

No longer in the Seeds Canada hopper is the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA), whose membership “did not vote in favour” of a five-way amalgamation proposal during a vote held over six weeks ending in late August.

The amalgamation proposal dates back to a 2015 brief from the CSGA and CSTA, followed by a 2017 “green paper” on the “core ideas and context for the next-generation seed system.”

A 2018 white paper from the five organizations pointed out that, among other issues facing the seeds sector, the groups have “overlapping memberships and even directors, creating a significant draw on member time and resources.”

The CSGA, which would have been the largest participating group in a five-way merger, represents pedigreed seed producers, with a membership made up mainly of farmers. It also has statutory power to certify pedigreed seed.

The CSTA, meanwhile, represents seed companies including major multinationals such as BASF and Bayer as well as smaller seed grower/retailers. CSTA president Ellen Sparry said last month it’s hoped the CSGA would co-operate with a separate Seeds Canada organization, possibly through a formal agreement.

The four other organizations said Tuesday they now plan to build on the momentum from their previous votes in favour, and update the Seeds Canada ratification package before undertaking a new membership vote.

“The goal is to ensure that members and stakeholders, including seed growers, will see value in the new amalgamation package,” they said in a release.

Implementation work on the new plan will take place “concurrently,” with the goal of bringing Seeds Canada into existence in February 2021 pending board and membership approvals, the groups said.

“While there may be one less amalgamating partner, the vision for Seeds Canada to become the voice of the seed sector, including seed growers, analysts and the seed trade, remains the same,” the groups said.

The new plan’s goal, they said, is for Seeds Canada’s membership to eventually include national and provincial seed associations, “as well as seed growers from across the country.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Wright has been involved with the CSTA for a number of years. In that time, he has served on the board of directors for two years and on the executive for three years.

Wright has a strong connection to agriculture, a foundation that was laid in childhood at his family’s cash crop farm and farm equipment dealership. During his career he has held several roles with Monsanto Canada since 2000.

Currently, he is the Canada corn and soybean portfolio lead, which includes introducing new traits and the expansion of corn and soybeans in Western Canada.

The CSTA board includes: Todd Hyra, SeCan, 1st Vice-President; Georges Chaussé, La Coop Fédérée, 2nd Vice-President; Brent Derkatch, Canterra Seeds, Past President; Doug Alderman, Pride Seeds; Darrell Dziver, BrettYoung Seeds; Wayne Gale, Stokes Seeds Limited; Bruce Harrison, Crop Production Services Canada; Bob Hart, Sevita International; Duane Johnson, Syngenta Canada; George Lammertsen, Bayer CropScience; Brian Nadeau, Nadeau Seeds; Roger Rotariu, NuFarm; Ellen Sparry, C&M Seeds; Marty Vermey, Dow Seeds; and Jim Schweigert the American Seed Trade Association representative.

“I have the pleasure of working with the group of tireless individuals who make up the CSTA board of Directors” Wright said. “While we have a lot of work to do over the next year, I’m confident that this is the group that will continue to bring our mission into action”.

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“It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve,” said Rene Van Acker, a professor of plant science at the University of Guelph. “If it’s a threshold of zero, that’s difficult, if not impossible.”

Van Acker co-authored two of the four papers reviewed by a group of forage specialists, seed producers, and alfalfa growers who created the voluntary coexistence guidelines for the Canadian Seed Trade Association.

Although GM alfalfa isn’t currently being grown in Western Canada, the release of the plan has raised fears it will pave the way for commercial production of the controversial crop. A similar plan was created for Eastern Canada in 2013 and in March, Forage Genetics International announced it would sell limited amounts of HarvXtra alfalfa, a glyphosate-tolerant variety, this spring.

A number of groups — including Forage Seed Canada, Peace Region Forage Seed Association, and Organic Alberta — say contamination of conventional and organic forage seed and hay would cost them lucrative markets that have a zero-tolerance policy for GM traits.

“Zero is a very low number,” said Van Acker. “There’s always the possibility for something very rare, and it would be very rare.

“I’m not sure that the threshold should be zero. If there was a threshold of .01 per cent, then they should have something to work with. With reasonable practices and awareness and neighbours talking to each other, things are possible. It is possible to maintain decent segregation at a reasonable threshold level.”

Since the GM variety has been registered for commercial sale and production by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, there is no legal recourse if the GM trait spreads to conventional or organic alfalfa.

“There’s no compensation if you are contaminated, and no one can enforce the best management practices because it’s not required by law,” said Van Acker.

In Europe, there is coexistence legislation, with legal regulations and search and seizure rights. Nothing like that exists in North America.

In April, 15 farm organizations asked the federal agriculture minister to ban the sale of GM alfalfa until a full economic impact assessment is conducted. The Alberta Association Of Municipal Districts has made a similar call to the province, but neither government has responded to the requests.

At this point, the best option may be for concerned growers in a region to work together to reduce the threat by employing best practices, especially separation distances, said Van Acker.

People should also recognize that any transfer of the Roundup Ready trait to feral alfalfa is a different situation from what happens when weeds become resistant to glyphosate, he said. In the latter, weeds with the trait are “selected” because glyphosate is constantly being used.

“There’s a piece of good news,” said Van Acker. “If it’s a Roundup Ready trait, that trait is a neutral trait and it is not selected for in the environment unless you spray Roundup. If it escapes into an environment where Roundup isn’t sprayed on the population, then the frequency of the trait in the population remains at the invasion level — very, very low.”

If genetically modified alfalfa contaminates conventional or organic at a low level — such as one in 10,000 plants — it should remain at that level in the population.

However, getting rid of even a low level of contamination is virtually impossible. And while the best management practices in the coexistence plan are good guidelines, they also come with challenges, said Van Acker.

“Best management practices include things like managing roadsides (by mowing or spraying with another herbicide). Whose jurisdiction is that? And how diligent are you going to be or do you have to be?”

In order to implement an effective coexistence plan, producers growing GM alfalfa need to be diligent and also talk with growers who may be affected, he said.

It’s also important to watch what happens with thresholds in GM-sensitive markets.

“Even in Europe, there’s a threshold for final products for the labelling of GM, but that still hasn’t been parsed out for how clean the seed has to be, for example,” said Van Acker. “If the final product in the grocery store is .09 (per cent), how clean does the seed need to be? That still makes things difficult. That’s where many people — exporters in particular — are thinking, watching and worrying.”

The coexistence plan can be found at cdnseed.org.

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Forage Genetics International (FGI) said late last month it will be releasing some HarvXtra alfalfa seed for planting this spring — but critics of GM alfalfa denounced the move, saying it’s “a myth” it won’t contaminate non-GM seed and hay production.

HarvXtra alfalfa has Monsanto’s glyphosate-tolerant Roundup Ready genetics plus a trait for lower levels of lignin, a structural component of alfalfa plants that holds them upright but makes them less digestible for cattle.

Forage Genetics said GM and conventional alfalfa can “coexist” because HarvXtra will only be grown for commercial hay production under stewardship protocols developed through the Canadian Seed Trade Association, and also because all seed production of its GM variety is done in the U.S.

“Similar stewardship plans in the U.S. have allowed organic, conventional, and genetically modified alfalfa farmers to coexist, regardless of the production method they choose,” Forage Genetics said in a press release.

Not so, said Heather Kerschbaumer, a forage seed grower in the Peace and president of Forage Seed Canada.

“The company won’t admit coexistence is failing in the U.S., that there are definite contamination problems, that the U.S. is losing export markets, and that farmers are paying the price for those lost exports,” Kerschbaumer said in an email.

“Coexistence is a myth in most areas. Wild (feral) alfalfa is becoming contaminated, and their ‘coexistence plan’ is actually a ‘slow contamination plan’ in reality. There is a reason that the U.S. alfalfa companies are moving their multiplication contracts to southern Alberta growers, where they can still grow clean seed.”

Forage Genetics stressed its decision is “confined to the sale of seed for hay production” and not for alfalfa seed production. It also said it won’t be selling GM alfalfa on the Prairies until there are “additional stewardship guidelines to address the possibility of product moving from Eastern Canada to Western Canada.”

But discussions about the coexistence plan have not addressed the concerns of forage seed and hay exporters who fear GM contamination would shut them out of key foreign markets that don’t accept GM seed or hay, said Kerschbaumer.

“Everyone who is a key stakeholder who has been involved in the ‘coexistence plan’ ongoing discussions has serious concerns that it will not safeguard anything,” she said. “The only stakeholders who seem to have their blinders on and continue to say it will work are FGI and Monsanto. They both have stated on the conference calls that coexistence is working in the U.S. and there have been no instances of contamination anywhere.”

But a USDA study has found feral alfalfa with GM traits is widespread south of the border. And Alberta Farmer reported in February that a batch of foundation seed contaminated with Roundup Ready alfalfa was sent to a forage seed grower in southern Alberta four years ago. Forage Genetics says it was an isolated incident and it has safeguards in place to prevent a repeat, but the company declined requests to provide details of those safeguards.

Last month, citing the potential loss of markets, the Alberta Association Of Municipal Districts and Counties passed a resolution requesting the provincial government keep GM alfalfa from being grown in the province until it is accepted by international markets.

Only a limited amount of HarvXtra alfalfa — enough for about 5,000 acres — will be sold in Eastern Canada this year, but any is too much, National Farmers Union president Jan Slomp wrote in a letter to federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay following Forage Genetic’s announcement.

“Several alfalfa markets are highly sensitive to GM contamination, including certified organic, seed, pellet, and hay exports to Europe, China and Japan, as well as domestic seed production and feed for organic livestock and dairy,” Slomp wrote.

“Because of its biological characteristics, it is not possible for GM alfalfa to ‘coexist’ with conventional alfalfa.”

In addition to having lower lignin, HarvXtra “offers more flexibility in cutting schedule to achieve improved forage quality or greater yield potential when compared to conventional alfalfa at the same stage of maturity,” said Forage Genetics.

But allowing hay harvests at later dates would increase bloom time “and hence, the unwanted spread of GM traits by cross-pollination,” said Slomp.

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Alberta Farmer recently learned that a batch of foundation seed contaminated with Roundup Ready alfalfa was sent to a forage seed grower in southern Alberta four years ago. And that almost certainly means the hugely controversial GM variety is present in the province, said the grower.

“I should have made a big scene, but I didn’t want to and it’s four years later,” said the grower, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Although this is the only confirmed case, the contamination was only discovered by accident and more farms likely grew GM alfalfa and never realized it, he said.

“It’s in the system — if it’s in one, it’s in more than one,” he said. “I should have been more vocal right at the start.”

If so, it could be the start of the nightmare scenario long feared by many forage growers in Western Canada, which accounts for nearly all of the country’s 327,000 acres of forage seed. (Alberta has 40 per cent of those acres.) Canada exports $280 million of forage seed annually and another $100 million worth of alfalfa and timothy hay, meal, and pellets.

But most of the world’s major buyers — including Europe, China, Japan, and the Middle East — have a zero-GM tolerance policy for both forage seed and hay, and test on a parts-per-million level.

Although the southern Alberta grower took extensive measures to wipe out the GM alfalfa on his farm, any other growers who received other batches of the contaminated foundation seed would not have known it was present. And if allowed to flower, its transgenic traits could be easily spread, said Heather Kerschbaumer, a forage seed grower from Fairview and president of Forage Seed Canada.

“The concern is that pollen would contaminate wild alfalfa, which would then contaminate the crops — it would slowly move and become a pest,” said Kerschbaumer.

“The problem is because alfalfa is pollinated by bees and the pollen moves from the fields of hay where it is blooming. The concern is that the pollen and nectar would be transferred to wild alfalfa in ditches.

“It’s hard to find a fenceline or the edge of a pipeline or a ditch where there isn’t some alfalfa growing. There is wild alfalfa everywhere.”

Surprise discovery

Roundup Ready alfalfa was developed a decade ago by an Idaho alfalfa-breeding company, Forage Genetics International, using Monsanto technology. It has been approved for Canada, but Forage Genetics International needs to develop a stewardship agreement — also known as a “coexistence” plan — before it can be marketed here.

The company has developed a coexistence plan for Eastern Canada — which only has about 10,000 forage seed acres — but last year announced it wanted to create a national coexistence plan, since forage alfalfa has been approved for sale by CFIA. That move has been strongly opposed by Forage Seed Canada, which argues coexistence is not possible because pollen cannot be confined to one field.

The case in southern Alberta is a stark example of how difficult it is to keep the GM genie in the bottle.

Foundation seed is created from breeder’s seed and, in theory, should be a pure variety. The southern Alberta grower said it was only a fluke that he learned his batch of seed contained trace amounts of Roundup Ready alfalfa.

“We put in a field and we seeded too much,” said the farmer. “We had a 10-inch drill and we upped the rate and it canopied in and choked all the alfalfa out. The stand was really thin. We had all-risk insurance and there wasn’t enough plant density to insure so we took it out.”

That was when he got the surprise of a lifetime.

After spraying the field with Roundup, the grower said he was stunned to see that about 100 plants across the entire field had survived. He sprayed the survivors with a broadleaf herbicide, and summerfallowed the field for a year to ensure any subsequent survivors were plowed down, before putting it back into alfalfa seed.

‘Someone has screwed up’

Although he immediately contacted Forage Genetics International and company officials inspected the field, he said he neither asked nor was told if other batches of contaminated foundation seed were sold to other growers.

An official with Forage Genetics International said he wasn’t familiar with details of the Alberta incident but said contamination can happen.

“If someone buys seed from the U.S., they can end up with Roundup alfalfa,” said Mike Peterson, the company’s lead for Global Traits. “If a seed company doesn’t have good, correct quality controls, anything can happen. It’s the same thing where you could have a conventional soybean in Ontario and it could be loaded up with traits. It does happen and someone has screwed up.

“There are controls in place. This is a breakdown in quality control.”

The contaminated seed would have to have come in illegally from the U.S., he said.

“Companies can be lousy companies, and not have formal, rigid quality controls and test their seed,” said Peterson. “That’s one way it can happen. It’s not approved for sale or use in Western Canada but it is in the U.S., so you could bring it across from Idaho or Montana or whatever.

“We take those things very seriously, so we don’t think there is any GE alfalfa in Western Canada right now.”

There is a “very easy” test for genetically modified alfalfa and if a commercial seed producer follows proper protocols, there should not be a problem, he added.

“It’s really just a breakdown in process,” said Peterson. “We all know what needs to be done to prevent it. It’s not hard. It’s just companies being lazy, is what it is.”

(It is also possible to bring seed across the border without a licence — which allegedly happened in 2011 in Saskatchewan — but that was not the case in the Alberta incident.)

Seed versus hay

But Kerschbaumer said she fears the accidental release of Roundup Ready alfalfa is a forerunner of what’s to come.

Forage Genetics International, which established a coexistence plan for Eastern Canada several years ago, is now doing the same in Western Canada, she said.

“We’re hoping that that means that they’re not going to start selling it in Canada this spring,” said Kerschbaumer. “They keep pushing to get this (the coexistence plan) in place, and saying they want it in place before the beginning of March. It’s a rush to try to get something this serious figured out.”

But Peterson said the coexistence plan is only for production of GM hay — not alfalfa seed — and that’s a critical difference.

“We’re not going to have GE seed production,” he said. “That’s where the greatest risks occur, from pollen flow. The coexistence planning that we’ve been working on is if we have GE hay next to a conventional hayfield.

“I don’t want to say never, but FGI does not have short-, medium-, or long-term plans to see GE alfalfa seed in Canada. That’s not on the table right now. (Western Canada) is a valuable conventional seed production area, so we don’t want to change that at this time.”

Contamination is unlikely in hay production because a field of GM alfalfa would have to flower at the same time as a nearby conventional field, and then the conventional field would then have to be left unharvested for another 60 to 70 days before it went to seed, Peterson said.

Moreover, his company has not said it will start selling Roundup Ready alfalfa for hay production in Canada, he added.

“If we did sell GE alfalfa for hay production, the intent would be initially, that it would only be done from Ontario east because there’s no seed production there,” said Peterson. “But we have not even announced that we’re selling traits in Canada yet.”

‘People are worried’

But the incident four years ago shows the challenge of preventing contamination entirely, said Kerschbaumer.

Most forage seed growers aren’t opponents of genetic modification, but are fearful of the prospect of losing profitable overseas customers.

“Alberta is the biggest seed production area,” she said. “This is risking all of our seed markets. That’s why there are people worried about it.”

A newly released USDA study on “transgenic feral alfalfa” will only fan those fears.

The study surveyed 4,580 fields in California, Idaho, and Washington state where conventional alfalfa seed was being grown. About 10 per cent of fields had feral or rogue varieties, and in 27 per cent of those cases, the rogue varieties were transgenic. The study didn’t look for causes — both seed spillage and pollinators are possible causes — but its author said it “confirms that genetically engineered alfalfa has dispersed into the environment.”

The USDA study also put some numbers on a problem that has been evident for years.

Roundup Ready alfalfa has been widely grown in the U.S., but not in California’s Imperial Valley. Growers there produce more than $100 million of hay annually, much of it for export, and successfully fought to make the valley a “GM-free” zone.

Nevertheless, several loads of hay from the Imperial Valley exported to China have tested positive and three major growers have reportedly been “blacklisted” by Chinese buyers.

Assessing the risks

Both the Imperial Valley situation and the incident in southern Alberta prove that contamination is inevitable, said Kerschbaumer.

She added that her exports have been tested and although none had transgenic alfalfa contamination, one container load of timothy hay was rejected by a customer four years ago after a single canola seed was found in a 25-gram sample.

Peterson concedes there are risks. The greatest risk is when Roundup Ready seed is being produced near a non-GM seed operation.

“There’s hay to hay, hay to seed, and seed to seed,” he said. “Seed to seed is the worst. If you have GE seed next to non-GE seed, that’s something that we’re not proposing at all.

“Even having GE hay next to conventional seed is a little bit risky without putting significant isolations between them.”

But the contamination threat can be managed, said an official with the Canadian Seed Trade Association.

“There are some different opinions about whether we should have the technology or not,” said Crosby Devitt, the organization’s executive director. “From a perspective of the Canadian Seed Trade Association and those that represent all sides of the industry, the best way to go forward is to find a way to coexist. Everybody’s ideas and concerns are valid. Let’s get them all out on the table and work together on it.”

His organization has not been told if or when GM alfalfa is coming to Western Canada.

“We will find out at the same time as everyone else,” said Devitt. “We do know that the product is approved and there isn’t any barrier to bringing the product into Canada or selling it.”

Nevertheless, he added, “what we expect is that it is likely not going to be in Western Canada.”

Developing a coexistence plan for Western Canada does not mean Roundup Ready hay will be grown on the Prairies, added Peterson.

“This will be the national coexistence plan and we’re revising the Eastern (Canada) plan to make it a national plan,” he said. “That’s the process right now, and we’re in the middle of doing that.”

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The Crop Varieties Registered in Canada and Plant Breeders’ Rights Status database was created by the Canadian Seed Trade Association with the assistance of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s variety registration office and the plant breeders’ rights office.

Using the database, seed sector value chain members can easily identify the PBR status of a crop variety with a few simple steps. Users can search specifically by crop kind, variety name, and by the type of PBR protection. The full database is available at cdnseed.org.

The type of PBR protection is indicated by two certification marks: UPOV 1978 or UPOV 1991. “We encourage members and stakeholders to check the database frequently,” said seed trade association president Scott Horner.

“We also hope everyone continues to visit www.pbrfacts.ca to review the opportunities and obligations relevant to all of us under the new Plant Breeders’ Rights legislation.”

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Horner has been a member of the group’s board since 2008, and represents it on the Seed Association of the Americas. He has also chaired the hybrid canola seed production subcommittee. He succeeds Peter Entz.

The Canadian Seed Trade Association is the national voice of 130 seed company members engaged in all aspects of seed research, production, and marketing and trade, both domestically and internationally.

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The program is an initiative of Bees Matter, a group consisting of chemical and agricultural groups including CropLife Canada, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, the Canola Council of Canada, the Canadian Seed Trade Association, and the Canadian Honey Council.

“The agricultural community recognizes the importance of pollinators, like honeybees, that are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat,” said Greg Sekulic, the canola council’s agronomy specialist in Grande Prairie and spokesperson for Bees Matter.

“The Buzzing Gardens program is our way of helping Canadians get involved in supporting honeybees, just as the agriculture community has always done.”

A free Buzzing Gardens seed packet with enough seasonal and perennial seeds to plant a five-square-foot garden can be ordered at beesmatter.ca.

The website also offers information on “the complexity of honeybee health.”

Bee deaths have become a hot topic in recent years, and prompted the Ontario government to bring in rules that will slash use of acreage planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seed by 80 per cent by 2017. That move has been widely condemned by most farm groups, which note that bee numbers are increasing nationally, particularly in the West, where neonic-treated canola seed is the norm.

“Most bee health experts agree that there is no single factor affecting honeybee health,” Bees Matter states in its Buzzing Gardens press release.

“Instead, parasites like the deadly varroa mite, diseases, harsh weather, incorrect use of pesticides, and inadequate nutrition all affect honeybee colonies.”

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Developed by a group of seed industry professionals, the guide offers best management practices for insecticide- and fungicide-treated seed. It is designed to complement CropLife Canada’s seed treatment operations standards, which provide uniform health and safety practises for the storage and handling of seed treatment products in Canada.

It may also be helpful for those making operational decisions on the stewardship of seed enhanced with biological, inoculants, fertilizers, or functional seed coatings such as polymers.

The new guide expands on the storage and handling guidelines developed in 2005 to encompass transportation, use and disposition, said Dale Adolphe, executive director of the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association.

“We encourage seed growers and commercial producers to familiarize themselves and adopt these important stewardship practices,” said Adolphe.

“We strongly advise those who handle, transport, and use treated seed to implement the best management practices found in the guide,” added Dave Baute, president of the Canadian Seed Trade Association, which partnered with the seed growers’ association to develop the guide.

It is available at seedgrowers.ca and cdnseed.org.

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The April 30 PBRO Plant Varieties Journal on the CFIA website lists three new PBR91 wheat varieties, two oats varieties, one flax variety and six potato varieties. CSTA says there are different obligations associated with the new PBR91 varieties, which can be found at pbrfacts.ca.

“We are entering a new era of opportunity with PBR91,” CSTA president Dave Baute said in a release. “But with the opportunity comes obligations.”

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