THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
VOL. 89 | NO. 45 | $3.75
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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Barley mounts a defence | P38
SPECIAL REPORT | TOLERANCES
Flax grower remembers day of the Triffid The issue of low level GM presence reverberates today BY SEAN PRATT SASKATOON NEWSROOM
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SEE DAY OF THE TRIFFID, PAGE 2
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A Saskatchewan plant scientist named several flax varieties to commemorate Canada’s contributions during the First World War. The varieties, recognized in the photo with a flax-blue poppy, have become the backbone of Western Canada’s expanding flax industry. | MICHELLE HOULDEN ILLUSTRATION REMEMBRANCE DAY | FLAX
Flax honours war vets In remembrance | Plant scientist names varieties for Canadian battles BY BRIAN CROSS SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Every year in November, millions of Canadians adorn themselves with a bright red poppy to honour the nation’s war veterans. G ordon Rowland, a for mer Saskatoon resident and University of Saskatchewan plant scientist, chose a different flower to recog-
nize Canada’s war heroes. In a plant breeding career that spanned nearly 40 years, Rowland developed and named several flax varieties that eventually formed the backbone of Western Canada’s expanding flax industry. Those varieties included Vimy, Somme, Flanders, CDC Valour, CDC Bethune, CDC Arras, CDC Sorrel and CDC Sanctuary, all
named to honour Canadian veterans who served in the First World War. “I just thought it was a very fitting theme,” said Rowland. “It was a way of honouring those individuals who sacrificed so much of their personal lives during the First World War.” access=subscriber section=news,crops,none
SEE FLAX HONOURS VETS, PAGE 2
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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv%:; NOVEMBER 10, 2011 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Inc. Publisher, Larry Hertz Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240; Registration No. 10676
Allen Kuhlmann remembers when the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission got the call that Triffid had been found in a Canadian shipment. “We didn’t believe it,” said the former chair of the commission. “As far as we felt, there was no Triffid.” Kuhlmann and the rest of the industry were convinced the European labs must have detected Roundup Ready canola or some other type of genetically modified crop because Triffid was never commercialized in Canada. Reality set in when the Canadian Grain Commission confirmed that Triffid was indeed in the supply chain. “Your response is, ‘My God, what’s going to happen to the industry and what’s going to happen to me as a grower?’” said Kuhlmann, who farms near Rouleau, Sask. What happened was that flax prices went in the toilet, falling as low as $6 per bushel before being revived by a trade protocol negotiated with the European Union and sudden interest from Chinese buyers. For Kuhlmann, it was his first direct exposure to a new non-tariff trade barrier called low level presence, where trace amounts of a GM crop that has received regulatory approval in an exporting country but not in an importing country can restrict or shut down trade. It is an issue that has frustrated importers and exporters around the world who find the zero tolerance approach for unapproved GM traits employed by most countries intolerable.