Current Issues:

CropLife Cannot Sell It

(To Manitoba Co-operator)

Highlights of the CropLife Canada meeting were featured in the September 27 issue. CropLife is the lobby organization for multinational chemical/biotech companies operating in Canada. It has done some good things like supporting pesticide container collection and triple rinsing.

CropLife complains it doesn't get any respect - that things like pesticides are misunderstood by the general public. I place myself among those Canadians who are deeply suspicious of any organization that lobbies my government on behalf of the world's multinational chemical companies.

I read about CropLife's complaints one day after returning from Central America where I worked with Canadian and Central American scientists studying pesticide contamination of water, food and even human breast milk in that region. The world's multinationals are happy to sell pesticides to poor, illiterate farmers who cannot comprehend labels and hence misapply many of these products. Unfortunately for the farmers and their families, their own governments do not have the resources or choose not to demand more accountability from the chemical companies.

My frustration with CropLife extends to its claims about biotechnology. I have seen too many Roundup Ready soybean fields in Manitoba polluted with Roundup Ready canola volunteers to have any faith in the multinational's ability to predict "side effects" of their technology. Boy, I can hardly wait to see what "gene-stacking" will bring us!

However the worst is yet to come. CropLife Canada represents companies who are busy buying up the world's germplasm. Once they own all the seeds, who knows what will happen? It is time to toss out our present model of agriculture, where few control so much. We need to rebuild agriculture from the ground up, but that's a topic for another day.

CropLife feels that its message is misunderstood and that many Canadians do not trust them. Tough.

DR. MARTIN ENTZ
Professor of Cropping Systems
Department of Plant Science
University of Manitoba

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About the Green Party of Manitoba:

The Green Party of Manitoba was officially established in 1998. The aim of the Green Party is to educate the public and government about the fallacy in believing that the "environment" is a separate issue from the other issues that Manitobans are concerned about. A truly sustainable society requires a fundamental acknowledgement of all the social, economic and ecological factors that are involved when implementing government policy and evaluating its outcomes. Green Party of Manitoba policies can be found Here.