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One-Minute Activist

Sugar Grows in Canada

The Food Issues Committee continues with its One Minute Activist (an idea borrowed from the Harvest Food Co-Op in Cambridge, MA). In October 2007 we introduced a GMO kitchen hunt in which we asked member to search for the "Big 4": canola, corn, cotton, and soy.

This issue we are introducing you to a lesser known and lesser used GMO crop: sugar. If you are familiar with GMO technology, you may already know that sugar cane has not been genetically modified (yet). What you may not know is that the sugar you see on an ingredients list, unless specified as cane sugar, can be beet sugar. According to the Canadian Sugar Institute (CSI), an organization that represents the Canadian producers of refined cane and beet sugar, the ingredients list on pre-packaged food does not need to specify whether sugar is derived from cane or beets.

We must acknowledge that ingredients lists do not contain all the information a consumer might need or want. Now add to this concern the fact that Health Canada has no objection to the food use of sugar from GE sugar beet. To be more specific, Health Canada has no objection to Glyphosate tolerant Sugarbeet (Event H7-1) from Monsanto Canada Inc., also known as Roundup Ready sugar beet. According to the CSI website, Alberta farms plant more than 35,000 acres of beets for sugar production. How many of these acres will switch to GMO beets?

If you feel we need to nip this issue in the beet (ahem - bud), copy and paste the letter below into an email and send it to Sandra Marsden, President of the Canadian Sugar Institute: smarsden@sugar.ca, you may also wish to CC Jenny Gusba, Director of Nutrition and Scientific Affairs: jgusba@sugar.ca. Don't like to email? You can print the letter or clip it from the Chronicle and mail to CSI.

Feel free to add you own changes. Remember that products from the U.S.A. contain sugar produced there. For more info about U.S. sugar production, visit: www.crystalsugar.com (and consider a letter to David Berg, President, American Crystal Sugar Company).

The Canadian Sugar Institute website is at www.sugar.ca and the Health Canada pages relating to GMO sugar beets can be found at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/gmf-agm/appro/august100_final_e.html.

Finally a big thank you to the Organic Consumers Association www.organicconsumers.org who gave both Harvest Co-Op, and now Karma, the idea to protest GMO sugar beets.

Letter

Sandra Marsden, MHSc, RD
President
Canadian Sugar Institute
10 Bay Street, Suite 620
Toronto ON
M5J 2R8

Dear Ms. Marsden,

An overwhelming number of Canadians support mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. As a concerned consumer, I ask that the Canadian Sugar Institute take an active role in keeping Canadian sugar production from converting to genetically engineered sugar beets. As you know a high percentage of the sugar produced for Canadians is derived from sugar beets. Consumers wishing to avoid genetically engineered ingredients cannot rely on packaging labels. As a result Canadian consumers will seek out products that are certified organic and/or products from companies that have publicly stated that they do not use genetically engineered ingredients.

One need only look at the history of genetically engineered crops to see that the promises made by the biotech industry starkly contrast with the reality (1).

• Roundup Ready corn and soy have led to an increase of herbicide use, not a decrease.
• The increased use of Roundup on Roundup Ready crops has led to the advancement of superweeds that are resistant to this herbicide.
• Consumer resistance to genetically engineered foods will affect profit margins of your member companies and their supporting farmers.
• Reports indicate that crop yields for non-biotech operations are higher than biotech chemically intensive operations.

For the sake of Canadian consumers, Canadian farmers, and Canadian sugar producers take a stand against genetically engineered sugar beets and, in so doing, you will make Canadian sugar a food that consumers can confidently rely on in the long term.

Thank you,

(your name / address)

(1) See, for example, Burkhard Mausberg, Maureen Press-Merkur et all, 2002, A Citizens Guide to Biotechnology, Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, Toronto

GMO Kitchen Hunt

The Food Issues Committee is stealing an idea from the Harvest Food Co-op in Cambridge, MA, and is starting the one-minute activist.

Since the committee is currently focusing on removing food containing GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms, also known as GE, Genetically Engineered) from Karma, the first One Minute Activist is a GMO hunt in your own kitchen, followed by a letter which you can sign and send to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food , Gerry Ritz, which has been borrowed and modified from a Greenpeace letter.

Did you know that most of the GM food we eat comes from the "Big 4": Canola, Corn, Cotton, and Soy. Go to your kitchen and look on the ingredient lists of food in your cupboards and if you find "conventional" (ie. not organic) forms of these foods, it is likely that they are Genetically Modified. Why can't you tell? It's because it is not mandatory in Canada (or the United States) to label ingredients as GM (it is in Europe).

If you feel that GM ingredients should be labelled, take a minute to copy and paste the letter below into an email and send it to Minister Ritz at Ritz.G@parl.gc.ca; or, clip it from the Chronicle and mail to:

        The Honourable Gerry Ritz, P.C., M.P.
        Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food
        House of Commons
        Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Feel free to add your own changes to the letter.

Letter

Dear Minister Ritz,

An overwhelming number of Canadians across the country support mandatory labelling of foods containing genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. According to a poll conducted by Strategic Communications, 79 per cent of British Columbian voters want labelling of foods containing GE before the next provincial election in 2009. Also a majority of British Columbians have indicated that this is an issue that will influence their vote at the next election. In Quebec, 86 per cent want GE food labelled. Other provinces, including Quebec and Prince Edward Island, have committed to developing mandatory labelling legislation for GE.

In 2001, the Royal Society of Canada's expert panel on biotechnology warned that GE food could pose serious risks to human health, cause extensive irreversible disruptions to natural ecosystems and seriously diminish biodiversity. Its 58 recommendations have still not been implemented. Last year, the B.C. Provincial Health Officer, Perry Kendall, in his 2005 annual report recommended mandatory labelling legislation to allow for consumer choice.

I would like to bring your attention to recent studies showing that genetically engineered corn is linked to toxic effects. Two varieties of corn grown and sold in Canada were linked to liver and kidney problems in rats, while a third variety caused abnormal immune responses in salmon.

Canadians want mandatory labelling of GE food (87 per cent according to an April 2004 Léger Marketing poll). I hope that your government will take the lead in the mandatory labelling of GE food products in Canada.

I therefore ask that you, as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, to quickly submit a proposal for GE mandatory labelling legislation that is harmonized with European standards..

I look forward to your government playing a leadership role in GE mandatory labelling.

Sincerely,

(your name / address)

This page was last updated on 26 September 2007.