Peter Schroedter, an Interlake sheep rancher and agriculture commentator, asks, what do deficit reduction and genetically modified foods have in common?

Nothing, at least not until government cost cutting invites corporate funding to help *finance* research at government agricultural facilities. Once private sector money was involved, there was need for a quick return on investment and ownership of intellectual property became a factor. Schroedter says that for private sector money to "partner" in the research, the government passed laws ensuring intellectual property rights in the bioengineering field. This moved research results from the public domain into the corporate sector's asset pool. Government then streamlined the regulatory process allowing for rapid application to ensure a quick return. That's when the government gave the farm away.

Schroedter says that in Canada, research at federal agricultural research facilities has been funded in part by corporate interests for 10 years or more. The problem is that research money from the private sector has strings and creates a systemic bias. A bias, not in the results but in the choice of research projects. Many private sector grants, says Schroedter, come with non-publication clauses if results don't support the corporation's product or position.

This puts the researchers in a double bind. In the scientific research community it's publish or perish. Scientists are research scientists for the same reason farmers farm, they love their work.

Schroedter goes on to say that farmers aren't scared of genetic engineering because for as long as there have been farmers they've tinkered with genetics. Now scientists can select genes and blast them from species to species, from animals into plants and from bacteria into animals or plants and back again.

This is a whole new game and none of the old rules apply. Moving genes around probably isn't a bad thing if you know what you're doing and have time to think about the consequences. But if the only thing driving the process is greed, who knows?

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