The first-ever GM food safety study to test over the entire life span of laboratory rats (two years) was published last month and found serious health impacts from eating Monsanto’s genetically engineered (also called genetically modified or GM) corn NK603, which was approved in Canada in 2001. The peer-reviewed study also tested the impacts of consuming...

Sep 1, 2012

but is it tasty on the BBQ? by Lucy Sharratt • Generally, if our food kills living organisms, it is viewed as a negative. For Monsanto, however, this feature is a great new selling point. New genetically engineered (also called genetically modified or GM) sweet corn designed to kill insect pests is now being harvested across Canada. Of course, without...

Jul 1, 2012

by Lucy Sharratt • A small BC company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) has developed a genetically modified apple that will not turn brown when it is cut, even though 10 years ago, the genetically engineered (or genetically modified, GM) “non-browning” apple was actually driven out of Canada when BC apple growers successfully stopped planned field...

May 1, 2012

by Lucy Sharratt • After more than10 years, active research into the genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) pig called “Enviropig” is being abandoned. In late March, the hog industry group Ontario Pork decided to stop funding GM pig research at the University of Guelph and the university is now closing down its active research and...

by Lucy Sharratt The Canadian government is proposing to allow the contamination of our food supply with genetically engineered foods that have not been approved for safe eating in Canada. This is not a joke or an exaggeration. Agriculture Canada has organized “stakeholder” consultations on what it calls “Low Level Presence” and has...

Aug 18, 2011

by Lucy Sharratt This year, we are eating from the first harvest of Monsanto’s eight-trait “SmartStax” genetically modified (GM) corn. Approved in 2009 and grown for the first time in North America last year, the new GM corn appears as processed food ingredients and feed for dairy and meat animals. Canada’s approval of SmartStax corn...

Jun 29, 2011

by Lucy Sharratt     In the midst of the federal election campaign, a radical citizen-led plan to address some of our most pressing health, hunger, climate and agricultural-related issues was launched. The plan, called the People’s Food Policy (PFP), is all about food. The sweeping proposals come from communities across the country and call for...

Jun 10, 2011

A piggy you hope never to meet at market by Lucy Sharratt Mouse and e coli genes injected into a Yorkshire pig embryo Fifteen years ago in a lab at the University of Guelph in Ontario – then home to some of Canada’s most ardent supporters of the new science of genetic engineering – an idea was conceived. Five years later,...

May 30, 2011

Alexandra Morton echoes distress call Following revelations at the Cohen Inquiry that government suppressed information on critical viral infections in Fraser sockeye, the Get Out Migration marched on with ‘Mayday for Wild Salmon.’ In April, Alexandra Morton and the Wild Salmon People travelled to communities asking people to lead government by...

Apr 4, 2011

Crop contamination an inevitable result by Lucy Sharratt Bill-C474, a concrete proposal to solve one of the major problems created by genetically modified crops (GM or GE) was rejected by Members of Parliament. After a full year of debate that included Parliamentary hearings, the Bill was voted down on February 9 by both Liberals and Conservatives. Although the...