GMO Blowback Enlarges with South Korea Rejecting Canadian Wheat and Flour, Might Even Bite Back Bayer!

Personally, I think the whole rotten corrupted GMO thing is slowly blowing up in the faces of these Canadian wheat farmers; under these circumstances, they will grow increasingly furious at how they have been lied to over decades by Monsanto, now subsumed into Bayer. Will they and their government be angry enough to dump the agribusiness GMO takeover and revert to the prior 8000 year history of agriculture by getting rid of Bayer? We'll see, eh?

The news: South Korea followed Japan's lead on Monday, June 18th. Canada is one of the world's largest wheat exporters and is South Korea's No. 3 wheat supplier after the U.S. and Australia. A few Roundup Ready wheat plants discovered in southern Alberta in 2017 have caused another country to ban Canadian wheat imports.

On Friday, June 15th, Japan banned Canadian wheat imports after it was announced genetically modified wheat plants were discovered along an access road in Southern Alberta. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency "proved" there's no genetically modified wheat in commercial production in Canada. The Canadian Grain Commission has also confirmed there's no trace of the unapproved trait in any Canadian wheat shipments. Genetically modified wheat is not approved in any country.

A different more analytical spin from coverage in the Ukraine, another large wheat exporter
This all stems from Canada's own admission, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on June 14 released a statement indicating it has discovered genetically modified wheat in southern Alberta.

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recently completed testing of a few wheat plants found on an access road in Alberta that survived a spraying treatment for weeds. When the CFIA was notified of this finding, CFIA scientists conducted tests to determine why the wheat survived. The CFIA's tests confirmed that the wheat found was genetically modified and herbicide-tolerant. Since GM wheat is not authorized in Canada, the CFIA worked collaboratively with partners at all levels to gather as much complete, accurate and credible information about this discovery as possible."

The CFIA said it was notified of the GM wheat by the government of Alberta on Jan. 31. By Feb. 12, the CFIA's Ottawa Genotyping/Botany Laboratory had received samples of wheat seeds from Alberta and began conducting DNA-based analyses. Following the analysis, the CFIA narrowed the wheat line down to two possible companies before ultimately determining on April 8 that the Alberta wheat sample was a match for a Monsanto GM wheat line that was used in multiple confined research field trials in the late 1990s and early 2000s in both Canada and the United States. The locations of the confined research field trials were approximately 200 miles or more removed from the GM wheat plants found in Alberta, the CFIA said.

The CFIA noted that no evidence was present to suggest that the GM wheat was present anywhere other than the isolated site where it was discovered. In addition, Health Canada has concluded that the finding does not pose a food safety risk.

Ottawa has confirmed that both countries had launched a temporary suspension of Canadian wheat. "South Korea is a much smaller buyer of Canadian wheat, but they still are a customer," said Alberta Wheat Commission chairman Kevin Bender. "We'd like to get this corrected as quickly as we can."

Alarmed but reassuring (and even sometimes thorough) coverage from the Canadian Broadcast Network raises questions of how much wishful thinking and die hard hope has pervaded their coverage...

It's standard protocol in both countries to temporarily close markets in such cases, Global Affairs spokesman Jesse Wilson said Monday. "The Government of Canada is working with foreign trading partners to ensure they have all the necessary information to make informed decisions and limit market disruption," he said in an emailed statement.

Japan is one of the top importers of Canadian wheat at around 1.5 million tonnes a year and tends to buy the highest-quality grain at premium prices, said Cereals Canada president Cam Dahl. South Korea imports around 235,000 tons a year.

"I am confident that we have the answers that Korea is looking for just as I'm very confident that we have the answers that Japan is looking for," Dahl said, adding he's hopeful the suspension won't last for long, and that there have been no indications so far that the European Union and China would be making similar moves.

A contractor spraying for weeds along an access road last year informed local authorities that a few plants were not killed by Roundup herbicide, the CFIA said in an incident report, tests finding plants were genetically modified to tolerate the weed killer.

Business consultant Gary Mar was the province's representative in Asia from 2011 to 2015. He told CBC News the ban should only last a matter of "two or three months," similar to what happened in 2013 when genetically modified wheat was found in the U.S. "It took a couple of months of testing to make sure the GMO wheat didn't get into the supply and it was resolved and I expect the same thing will happen here with Korea and Japan as it relates to Canadian wheat," he said.

Tests have concluded the wheat did not make its way into the food supply and was isolated to a few plants in the ditch where they were found. Health Canada said there are no safety risks. The CFIA said the genetically modified plants in Alberta were not a match for any of the 450 registered wheat varieties in its database. It confirmed the Alberta sample was a match for a genetically modified wheat line used in research field trials two decades ago in Canada and the United States.

U.S. agriculture company Monsanto Co. did the tests between 1998 and 2000 making up 0.1 per cent of total Canadian wheat plantings at the time, said company spokesman Jeff Neu.

"Given the passage of time and large distances involved, there is no evidence that would explain how or if the current GM wheat finding is linked with a previous trial," the CFIA said in the incident report.

Japanese scientists coming to Alberta
Deron Bilous, Alberta's economic development and trade minister, said Japanese scientists are en route to Alberta.

"We're working very closely with CFIA and are confident that similar to other examples in the past, that this will be resolved quickly."

Alberta Wheat Commission general manager Tom Steve says he is not concerned that the actions taken by Japan and South Korea might set off a domino effect.

"We know from our discussions with the Federal Government and Canadian Food Inspection Agency -- which is part of the federal government -- that they've reached out to all our significant customers. We haven't had any indications from our other major customers that this will interrupt the normal flow of grain. But we also will be working hard to ensure they have faith in our regulatory and quality control system and that we won't have any other disruptions. The U.S. is also a premium market and we don't have any indication they're going to stop exports."

Japanese officials were en route to Alberta to work with the CFIA, said Alberta Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous.

"This is their standard protocol as for wanting to ensure that Canadian wheat is safe," he said at a news conference. "We know that our farmers produce the highest quality and safest wheat in the world. We recognize it's in everyone's best interest to get this resolved in a very timely manner."
The value of Alberta's total wheat exports in 2017 was about $2.1 billion. The province's largest trading partners for the product are the U.S., Japan and Indonesia.

Japan bought $203 million worth of wheat last year from Alberta, according to provincial agriculture statistics. South Korea imported about $20 million in Alberta wheat last year.

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