THERE is a crisis in the Canadian wheat industry with the news two of its major buyers in both South Korea and Japan have suspended imports of Canadian wheat and flour due to the discovery of genetically modified (GM) wheat in the open in the prairie province of Alberta earlier this month.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced earlier in the month it had positively identified samples from southern Alberta as GM, and had identified them to be related to Monsanto trials into GM herbicide tolerant wheat in both northern states of the US and southern Canada.
Officials were alerted to the plants when it was noted they did not die following an application of herbicide.
No GM wheat has been commercialised anywhere in the world.
Of note is the distance the GM wheat plants have spread, with the CFIA officials noting the Monsanto field trials were over 300km away from where the resistant wheat volunteers were found.
Bob Phelps, of Australian anti-GM lobby group Gene Ethics, said the findings showed just how virulent GM wheat volunteers could be.
"GM crop contamination travels widely and persists, as GM containment and coexistence often fail," Mr Phelps said.
He said he would not be surprised if Canadian farmers, who lose returns due to the loss of market access to some of the biggest buyers of Canadian wheat, sought compensation from Monsanto.
"Farmers, traders and shoppers have a right to fair compensation for any loss or harm from GM contamination."
He said the Canadian incursion was far from unique.
"Rogue test wheat is not unique. Tasmania also mounted a costly, publicly-funded clean up program for 15 years after trial GM canola escaped in 1999.”
On the wheat front there was also unapproved GM wheat found in Montana, in the north-west of the US in 2014.
Japan and South Korea both imposed bans on US wheat in the wake of the incident similar to the current Canadian ban.
On the trade front the temporary ban from Japan and South Korea has big implications.
Canada is the third biggest supplier of wheat to South Korea and Japan after the US and Australia and the northern Asian countries are some of its largest markets.