Letter – Urgent need to reinstate safety assessments and transparency for all GMOs
On October 19, 2023, the NFU, CBAN, Vigilance OGM , and SaskOrganics sent the following letter to Health MInister Duclos and Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister MacAulay, calling for a reversal of the regulatory guidance decision that will allow many gene-edited products onto the market without public notification or government safety assessment. [PDF of letter]
Dear Ministers,
We congratulate you on your recent appointments as ministers with the weighty responsibilities of safeguarding the health and safety of Canada’s food system.
As you begin your important work, we are writing to alert you to recent reports that expose how changes to the regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been developed by departments in close collaboration with the biotechnology and pesticide industry. We are writing to bring your attention to the deepening credibility crisis in federal regulatory departments and the federal regulation of GMOs, and to ask that you urgently ensure safety assessments and transparency for all GMOs.
Background and update
In 2021, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) separately launched public consultations on new regulatory guidance proposals to define, in particular, how genetically engineered seeds and foods created by new gene editing techniques would be regulated. Our groups participated in the two consultations to share our detailed analysis of how the changes would negatively impact safety, transparency and public trust. We also encouraged other Canadians to participate in these consultations.
Despite strong, widespread public and farmer concern expressed over two years to the ministers and through the consultations, your departments chose to allow corporate self- regulation for many new gene-edited GMOs. We have since learned that this was the policy option proposed by the biotechnology industry in close communication with government departments, far in advance of the public consultations.
Last month, we learned from media reports that the biotechnology and pesticide industry lobby group CropLife Canada played a central role in designing the regulatory guidance proposals through a “Tiger Team” with officials from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Health Canada, and the CFIA.
Furthermore, documents obtained through Access to Information show that Health Canada was originally proposing to regulate all products of genome editing because plants developed using these techniques have no history of safe use as food in Canada. In other words, Health Canada was set to ensure government oversight over all new GMOs produced using gene-editing technology, which is the same position we have demanded from the outset of the public consultation process. We see that the CFIA objected to Health Canada’s position and, instead, supported the position of the deregulation that was proposed by CropLife Canada.
Request for urgent corrective action
Today we are asking you to hear our concerns, and the concerns of many Canadians, and return to Health Canada’s initial proposal for pre-market regulation of gene edited products. Reversing the changes to regulatory guidance can and should be made immediately, before products begin to slip through unregulated.
Farmers want to know what they are planting, particularly organic farmers. Canada’s regulations governing organic production standards prohibit the use of GMOs. Many environmental and public interest groups are concerned about the increased risks to biodiversity and human health if corporations are left to regulate products of biotechnology without government oversight. A majority of Canadians are also demanding to know what they are buying and putting on their plates.
We remind you that Health Canada’s fundamental mission is “helping the people of Canada maintain and improve their health.” This mission is clearly incompatible with the approach to remove regulatory oversight.
Now is the time to address this dangerous abdication of government responsibility. It is not too late to stand up and safeguard the public interest.
We continue to demand government oversight and transparency, and public accountability to ensure government carries out its duty to safeguard the health of Canadians, the autonomy of farmers, and the survival of Canadian organic agriculture.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Lucy Sharrat, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network
[signed]
Thibault Rehn, Coordinator, Vigilance OGM
[signed]
Garry Johnson, President SaskOrganics
[signed]
Jenn Pfenning, President, National Farmers Union
