GM Pigs Shut Down in Canada-CBAN Alert

GM Pigs Didn’t Fly – Thanks to you!    ***Le message français suit***

GM Pigs Shut Down in Canada: Major victory in the struggle against genetic engineering

April 2, 2012

Thanks to your support and actions we have stopped the GM Pig! Active research on the genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) pig called “Enviropig” is being abandoned. 

Read and circulate the press release at http://www.cban.ca/Press/Press-Releases/Genetically-Modified-Pig-Shelved

The hog industry group called Ontario Pork has stopped funding GM pig research at the University of Guelph. The university is now closing down its active research and ending its breeding program of the GM pig called "Enviropig." The pig was engineered with genetic material from a mouse to reduce phosphorous in its feces and could have become the first GM food animal approved in the world. For background and more information about the Enviropig visit www.cban.ca/enviropig

CBAN (the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network) works hand in hand with farmer, environmental, community and social justice organizations and with the concerned public to research and monitor, educate and mobilize, and create strategic opportunities for your action.

We also work behind the scenes. CBAN’s direct interventions with decision-makers at the university and in the farming community supported your actions to lead to today’s shutdown of the GM pig. In the last few months a small amount of extra funding allowed us to hire additional part-time staff to help us focus on our recent actions. Our focus will now be to stop GM Atlantic salmon and GM alfalfa. We are working to stop the corporate control of our food and environment. Just a little extra funding helped to stop GM pigs - with more help, we can do so much more together. Donate today at www.cban.ca/donate

Please still send us your signed petitions to the University of Guelph. Find more action at www.cban.ca/Take-Action

Read more about what this success means and what’s next:

This is one of many important successes in Canada

This is the fourth major success for Canadians in the global struggle against genetic engineering. We have also stopped Monsanto’s Bovine Growth Hormone in Canada (2001) and Monsanto’s GM insect resistant “New Leaf” potatoes (2005). In 2004, we stopped Monsanto’s GM herbicide-tolerant “Roundup Ready” wheat with our U.S. friends; but the industry is trying hard again to push GM wheat and we may need to re-activate our campaign. We have proven time and time again that people’s actions are effective. In the absence of democratic decision-making on genetic engineering, we can still make change happen. Our successes in Canada have an important and lasting global impact.

Genetic engineering is not the solution

Solutions to the major environmental and food security challenges of our time already exist in ecological agriculture, and each new GMO approval puts ecological farming at risk. Genetic engineering is an environmentally hazardous, economically risky and unnecessary technology that facilitates corporate control. Genetic engineering does not belong in a healthy, sustainable food system.

Through our successful campaign, we have exposed the futility of GM animal experimentation. GM food animals are neither commercially viable nor socially acceptable. They provide no economic benefit to farmers and a recent government poll shows that 64% of Canadians do not approve of the genetic modification of animals. GM animal experiments are a waste of human talent, animal lives, and public funds.

This victory comes at a critical moment

There are key fights before us in Canada. We can still stop GM alfalfa – a crop that was introduced in the U.S. but not yet in Canada. We need to stop GM alfalfa to protect organic food and family farms that are at the frontlines of GM resistance in North America and are central to the economic revival of our farm sector.

The first GM food animal could still be introduced in North America if we do not stop the small U.S. company AquaBounty from getting approval for its GM Atlantic salmon. Just like the GM pig, the GM salmon is designed to support factory farming.  It is not wanted by consumers or the aquaculture industry. If a GM fish is introduced, it will also be harder for us to stop other GM foods, crops and animals.

Corporations are seeking to genetically engineer staple crops such as wheat and rice but they are meeting formidable global resistance. Around the world, people are successfully keeping new GM foods from being introduced. For example, Indian farmers and consumers successfully protested Monsanto Bt brijal (eggplant) in India.

Our victory over the GM “Enviropig” shows that Canadians are prepared to fight genetically engineered food, crops and animals – and we will win. We can stop genetic engineering. We are already succeeding.

You can help us build our movement - join us now! Donate today at www.cban.ca/donate