It's easier to sell and develop gene-edited seeds in Canada now — here's why some organic farmers are worried

New regulations allowing for more freedom in the development and sale of gene-edited seed varieties are sparking dissent among some organic farmers.

Allison Squires operates a small farm grain farm in Saskatchewan, with crops including wheat, lentils and flax. She’s long been proud to offer organic options to consumers, but says this change in regulations threatens her industry.

“I won’t necessarily have the assurance that I used to have that the seed that I’m buying is free from GE (gene-editing) contamination and therefore safe for organic production,” she told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday.

On May 3, the government announced changes to the guidance for seed development and plant breeding, relaxing guidelines regarding gene-edited seeds.

Gene-editing isn’t quite the same as gene-modified organisms, known as GMOs.

“The way they’re defining it here is it’s any seed that’s been edited without the insertion of any foreign DNA,” Squires said. “Things like CRISPR or techniques like that, where they’re turning genes on and off in a DNA sequence.”

GMOs use genetic engineering to transfer or introduce new genes, mixing species to create new or slightly altered ones. With gene-editing, developers are dealing with only the genetic material of one organism, and may be able to “edit” genetic material to create more resilient crops or crops which produce a higher yield.

CRISPR is a gene-editing technique gaining speed in the scientific world due its highly specialized ability to target and edit specific genes.

“Before these guidelines were put in place, all gene-edited seed was required to go through several assessment processes, both with Health Canada and with the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency),” Squires said. “At that point if they were deemed safe to be released into the environment, they would then be listed on a government website where organic farmers like myself could go and check and make sure that we weren’t planting these gene-edited seeds. Now that the announcement has been made and this new guidance has been published, all of the checks and balances that were in place before have been removed.”

Squires, who is also president of the Canadian Organic Growers, is concerned that the relaxed guidelines will lead to organic farmers not being able to guarantee to their customers that their food is completely organic.

Officials say the decision to open up more pathways for gene-edited seeds is to allow for more opportunities than conventional breeding permits, adding that steps are being taken to ensure the move takes organic certification needs into account.

"As the agriculture sector faces the challenge of feeding a growing world population in the midst of climate change, innovation is an incomparable tool to increase our production safely and sustainably,” Marie-Claude Bibeau, minister of agriculture and agri-food, said in a press release.

“While facilitating the development of new plant varieties from plant breeding innovations, in light of discussions with the government-industry committee, we will protect the integrity of organic certification."

The release stated that a committee on plant breeding will be created to monitor the marketplace as gene-edited products are introduced, and that it will be expanding the Seeds Canada Canadian Variety Transparency Database to ensure individual seed varieties have transparency.

Under the new guidelines, plants containing foreign DNA still require authorization from the CFIA prior to being released into the marketplace, as well as plants that have the capacity to negatively impact the environment.

But Squires is concerned that the relaxed guidelines mean that companies could sell gene-edited seed to farmers “without any declarations at all.”

“We know that a lot of seed-developing companies are looking at developing GE varieties specifically for wheat,” she added. “So from my perspective, I’m going to be really nervous in the next year or two about what gene-edited varieties are coming onto the market that I don’t know about for my farm.”

Many markets she and other organic farmers sell to require a non-GMO guarantee, she explained, and it could be a huge blow to their business if they accidentally utilized gene-edited seeds.

“As an organic farmer, I’m required to prove that I’m not using any of these types of technologies,” she said. "Genetic engineering is prohibited for organic production, not only in Canada, but internationally, so if I’m inadvertently planting any undisclosed GE seed on my farm, that means I run the risk of losing my certification.”

The main issue isn’t the existence of more gene-edited seeds or food, Squires said — it’s what she describes as a lack of clarity around how consumers and farmers will be able to tell the difference.

“All we’re asking for is a way to identify the seed in the market,” she said. “We’re not necessarily opposing the introduction of (gene-edited) seed — although that is my personal choice as an organic farmer — but we’re actually asking the government just to provide us with a mandatory traceability system so that we could be assured that seed entry in the market is accounted for.”