Opinion: Gene-edited crops rules needed soon

When Canada chose to go its own way on genetically modified crops many years ago, it chose to regulate crop genetics by the results of the breeding, not how it was done.

If a new and novel trait is added to a genetic line, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, as a part of Health Canada, examines that result and decides whether it poses a threat to the nation — both genetically and on a market basis.

The process is rooted in sound science. Much of the world has come to agree with it. Regulate the outcomes, not the path. The European Union, with its mixed bag of regulatory procedures that lean heavily toward satisfying urban voters and urban myths around agriculture and food science, remains an outlier.

But now the progress of Canadian rules for gene edited crops, which appeared so promising after recent rulings, seems to have moved from the public policy fast lane to the mud-ridden European-like side roads of Health Canada and Agriculture Canada.

It’s possibly because 15 groups recently signed a letter to the federal agriculture minister, lobbying her to block the rules recommended by Canadian bureaucrats that would stick to a science-based system of evaluating genetics regulation based on outcomes.