Roundup Ready alfalfa not on deck for spring
Developer’s focus this year remains on U.S. market
Apr 10, 2013 2:02 PM – 7 comments
By: Staff
Forage Genetics International (FGI), the developer of Genuity Roundup Ready alfalfa, won’t be launching its product in Canada for planting this spring.
The Idaho-based forage seed developer’s decision, announced Monday, comes after months of “interest and speculation” about its commercialization plans for the Canadian market, after RR alfalfa returned to the U.S. market last year following a court challenge.
Said interest came to a head Tuesday, with a series of rallies in Ontario and across Canada, organized by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) and National Farmers Union-Ontario (NFU-O), among others, including calls from the federal opposition New Democrats (NDP) for a moratorium on the RR crop’s release.
CBAN and other opponents contend the release of alfalfa, as an insect-pollinated crop, with glyphosate-tolerant genetics could lead to their unwanted spread in Canada’s conventional and/or organic alfalfa crops, and damage exports to international markets wary of genetically-modified products.
The groups have also contended the release of another Roundup Ready crop could possibly accelerate development of glyphosate resistance in weeds the non-selective herbicide has previously controlled.
Ahead of its rallies Tuesday, Ottawa-based CBAN has said RR alfalfa “could be registered for use in Eastern Canada this April.”
According to Monsanto, which owns the patent on Roundup Ready genetics and licensed the technology to FGI for use in alfalfa, FGI’s “priority and focus for 2013 remains the U.S. market and continued growth in sales and plantings of this beneficial technology to American forage growers.”
That said, FGI “is continuing to evaluate and collect performance data, and gauge grower and industry interest for cultivation of Genuity Roundup Ready alfalfa in Canada,” but “has still not finalized a decision about (its) future commercialization” in the Canadian market.
Monsanto added that a survey last fall of alfalfa growers in Eastern Canada — where the concentration of dairy farms creates a key market for the crop — found “almost half of all farmers surveyed indicated they would be ‘very likely or somewhat likely to try Roundup Ready alfalfa if it was widely available.'”
The federal government granted the glyphosate-tolerant alfalfa full food, feed and environmental approvals in 2005. Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency completed its review last spring of Monsanto’s application to allow use of Roundup in Roundup Ready alfalfa.
FGI, Monsanto and other seed companies have run field trials of Roundup Ready alfalfa in Eastern Canada in the past two years — and those trials will continue this year, Monsanto said.
“Extensive” field research by university and government researchers on genetically-modified alfalfa has already gone on for over 15 years with “no impact” on Canadian alfalfa or alfalfa seed exports, the company added.