YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET
THE K.I.S.S.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Wilf Keller changed your life, and he predicts an even brighter future lies ahead for you » PG 2
Don’t be dazzled by technology — keep it simple, says precision ag expert » PG 3
WESTERN CANADA’S COMPREHENSIVE BULL SALE SOURCE
APPROACH TO TECH MARCH 2016
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Bill 6 controversy flares again The province plans to hand-pick who it will consult with By JENNIFER BLAIR AF staff
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coalition of Alberta farm groups wants the provincial government to put the brakes on its proposed Bill 6 consultation model. In mid-February, the province held a two-week nomination process to gather names for six separate working groups to consult on Bill 6, the controversial Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act.
see BILL 6 } page 7
EXCLUSIVE: GM alfalfa may already be in Alberta Accidental contamination of foundation seed heightens fears that forage and hay markets worth hundreds of millions are in peril By ALEXIS KIENLEN AND GLENN CHEATER AF STAFF
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enetically modified alfalfa has somehow made its way into Alberta — raising fears that western Canadian forage seed growers and hay exporters could be shut out of markets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Alberta Farmer recently learned that a batch of foundation seed contaminated with Roundup Ready alfalfa was sent to a forage seed grower in southern Alberta four years ago. And that almost certainly means the hugely controversial GM variety is present in the province, said the grower. “I should have made a big scene, but I didn’t want to and it’s four years later,” said the grower, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Although this is the only confirmed case, the contamination was only discovered by accident and more farms likely grew GM alfalfa and never realized it, he said. “It’s in the system — if it’s in one, it’s in more than one,” he
Alberta is the largest producer of alfalfa seed, but growers’ overseas customers have a zero-GM tolerance policy. PHOTO: andrea toman said. “I should have been more vocal right at the start.” If so, it could be the start of the nightmare scenario long feared by many forage growers in Western Canada, which accounts for nearly all of the country’s 327,000 acres of forage seed. (Alberta has 40 per cent of those acres.) Canada exports $280 million of forage seed annually and another $100
million worth of alfalfa and timothy hay, meal, and pellets. But most of the world’s major buyers — including Europe, China, Japan, and the Middle East — have a zero-GM tolerance policy for both forage seed and hay, and test on a partsper-million level. Although the southern Alberta grower took extensive measures to wipe out the GM
alfalfa on his farm, any other growers who received other batches of the contaminated foundation seed would not have known it was present. And if allowed to flower, its transgenic traits could be easily spread, said Heather Kerschbaumer, a forage seed grower from Fairview and
see GM ALFALFA } page 6
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