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THE TRUE GREEN REPORT

Frankenfood fiasco:

WHERE WOULD CANADA BE WITHOUT GENETICALLY MODIFIED WHEAT?

by Judi McLeod


November, 1999

Already raging in Europe, the battle of genetic engineering, which involves splicing the genes of one organism on to another to protect crops from herbicides or fight pests, could become the most important fight in more than a century.

The raging food phobia, dubbed 'frankenfood' by the media is poised to jump the Atlantic, and could be coming soon to a supermarket near you.

It was earlier this year when opposition to genetically modified foods exploded in England and spread like brush fire to the European continent.

Now clothed in the rhetoric of politics and made to appear as if it's something new, biotechnology is, and always has been, everywhere, claims a recent article in the reespected Wall Street Journal, "Coke has been using high-fructose corn sweetner made from genetically modified corn for years. Half of the soybean fields in the U.S.--the world's largest producer--are planted with genetically modified seeds. Soybeans and their derivative products are estimated to exist in some form in 60% of processed foods."

Greenpeace brought in activists from across Canada to Ottawa last month to work out a strategy to fight genetically modified foods. To date, 23 groups, including The Sierra Club and Greenpeace are examining genetic engineering. While environmental activists rush to cash in on the frankenfood fiasco, Canada is the one nation that made it to the world map with huge success in the area of genetically engineered food.

Indeed, Canada's wealth as a nation stems from wheat. Numero uno among Canada's heroes is a gentleman who got his start in the late 1890s with the development of a wheat seed--genetically engineered--that was heartier than the seeds coming from Europe to survive Canadian winters. And from that last century beginning, started Canada's bounty.

The life of Charles Saunders is chronicled in the national bestseller, The Canadian 100 by H. Graham Rawlinson and J.L. Granatstein. Saunders is listed first by the authors in the "100 most influential Canadians of the 20th century."

"King Wheat! The world standard for hard wheat has been and remains Canadian, and it was wheat that settled the prairies and made them rich," says Rawlinson and Granatstein in The Canadian 100. "Even today, in a diversified West, wheat can still bring in $15-billion for each crop, mobilize an army of 40,000 combines in its harvesting, and employ tens of thousands in its distribution and sale.

One of five sons of William Saunders, a druggist and horticultural scientist, Charles was more interested in the music chamber than he was in the farmer's field. In younger days, he ran a music school in Toronto, taught in some of the city's private schools and wrote a music column in The Week magazine.

Lucky for generations of Canadians that he heeded his father's call to return to more earthly pursuits.

According to The Canadian 100, "his father had been searching for a quicker maturing wheat that could prosper on the Canadian prairies, where early frost regularly bankrupted farmers.

"Pressed by his father, Saunders persevered, selecting seed from the best plants and chewing the kernels to test for strong gluten. The resulting strain he called Marquis, a wheat that was clearly superior in 1904 when grown and tested for its milling and breadmaking qualities in equipment he had developed.

"Saunders then arranged for Marquis wheat to be test grown in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1907, 1908 and 1909, and the crop, maturing seven to 10 days earlier than other strains and producing large crops, did phenomenally well, even when early frosts destroyed most of the other varieties. The next year samples went to 400 farmers scattered throughout the prairies, and by 1912, there was enough Marquis seed for all who wished to purchase it.

"With its faster maturity and its head resistant to heavy winds, Marquis hugely extended the area where wheat could safely be planted. By 1920 there were over 17 million acres in wheat in the West, 90 per cent of them Marquis. Thanks to Saunders, Canada had acquired its reputation for producing the best hard spring wheat in the world, its flour in demand by bakers everywhere. Thanks to Saunders, prairie farmers could plant their crops in the expectation of bringing it in at harvest time.

"Saunders was modest about his achievements. 'Who made Marquis wheat,?' he was once asked, and his response was immediate: 'God Almighty'. Certainly, but without Charles Saunders' work, God alone knows when Marquis might have been found. As London's Daily Express commented on his death, 'He added more wealth to his country than any other man.' Saunders made possible the prosperity of the prairies, and he is entitled to stand first among the most influential Canadians of the century."

And he did it through genetically engineered food!

Animal rights activist joins former boss at Greenpeace

Animal rights activist Holly Penfound and former executive assistant to Peter Tabuns, when he was a Toronto councillor, has joined her former boss in his new post as Greenpeace Canada Executive Director.

Penfound's name and cellular telephone were listed to call for further information on a Nov. 2 joint media advisory from Greenpeace Canada and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, promoting a rally against "dangerous plutonium shipment".

Penfound was fired by the Toronto Humane Society for trying to unionize staff during the society's turbulent ARK II days.

Penfound networked an anti-circus drive from her $48,000-a-year job as then Coun. Tabun's Executive Assistant, and in March of 1992 was successful in a bid calling on Toronto City Council to outlaw exotic and wild animals, including the circus, within city limits.

Toronto city council banned the circus from coming to town, and activists vowed to ban the circus from each and every city and town in North America.

But on April 2, an Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the City of Toronto had no jurisdiction to ban the circus, and ordered the city to pay all costs of the expensive court battle. (Tabuns lost in a subsequent bid to have council appeal the court ruling).

Penfound and her animal rights activist partner Rob Laidlaw, made Toronto their first major coup in their intended North American wide circus ban.

Penfound and Laidlaw, were co-ordinators of Zoocheck Canada. Zoocheck Canada advertised itself as a registered charity concerned about the welfare of captive animals. Neither one had any experience in dealing with captive animals.

Zoocheck drives to raise money, like Greenpeace, leaned heavily on human emotion.

In an article entitled, 'Implementing Exotic Animals Legislation in Your Municipality', Penfound once wrote: "The battle at Toronto City Hall against performing exotic animals isn't over yet. The circus profiteers have already tried once--albeit unsucessfully--to overturn Council's decision."

GREEN GASOLINE

Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman said over Radio CFRB that there will be no vehicle traffic in the city by the year 2011, a notion advocated by left-wing city Councillor Jack Layton for years.

In a Toronto Star article, (Business section, Oct. 15), car makers indicated the hope that green gasoline will soon spread across Canada.

The article stated, "Canada's cleanest gasoline, produced by the Saint John, N.B., Irving Oil Company, is available west of Quebec."

A letter writer to the Star pointed out that "a new, modern Irving station is in operation on Highway 401 near Cornwall.

"Irving is prominent throughout New England, so as we travel home to the Maritimes, we have access to Canadian "green gasoline." It is to be hoped that Irving will continue west on Highway 401," wrote Etobicoke resident John Brannen in his letter to the editor.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com



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