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In a federal election that has largely ignored Canadian farmers, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has a question for Canada’s major party leaders: What’s your party’s stance on GMOs?
Wall wrote all three leaders asking them and posted copies their responses to his Facebook page on Tuesday.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper told Wall his party shares “your view on the value of science-based approach to agriculture, which holds safety and sustainability at the forefront.”
“While our Conservative government is working hard to ensure that Canadian producers continue to have access to the best technology in the world,” Harper said, “the Liberals and the NDP want to adopt an approach that will cripple farmers with expensive, administrative red tape.”
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau disagreed.
“I believe very much in evidence-based decision making and in the skill and wisdom of Canadian scientists,” Trudeau wrote in an email.
Still, he noted not everyone is a fan of GM crop production.
“For some producers and their customers (i.e. those who would prefer not to use GM products),” he continued, “safeguards against the risk of intermingling are important. Such issues need to be squarely addressed on the basis of sound science and transparency.”
Meanwhile, NDP Leader Tom Muclair – who has come under fire for posing for a photograph with an anti-GMO activist – said support for agricultural research has been “gutted” under the Conservatives.
The NDP, Mulcair said, “will support agricultural research in the public interest,” noting his party “also supports the role of science in determining whether new developments are safe and appropriate.”
“In this regard, we recognize that GMOs that are available for use in Canadian agriculture have undergone a rigorous testing process,” Mulcair said.
Read full, original post: Brad Wall to party leaders: What’s your stance on GMOs?
