Canada:
Monsanto Delays Registry of Roundup Ready Wheat
National Post (Toronto) 3jan04
CanWest News Service—Monsanto Canada won't ask an advisory body to consider any of the company's controversial Roundup Ready wheat varieties for registration in 2004, making it impossible for genetically modified wheat to be introduced this year even if the crop passes other regulatory hurdles.
Monsanto has completed the required three years of field testing for several lines of its Roundup Ready wheat, which is engineered to withstand doses of the herbicide Roundup.
However, Monsanto does not intend to bring forward any current lines for recommendation at the Prairie Regional Recommending Committee on Grains' (PRRCG) 2004 annual meeting in Saskatoon next month.
The PRRCG formally meets once a year to make recommendations on which newly developed varieties of grain the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's registration office should approve.
Approval by the committee is one step Monsanto must eventually pass in order to introduce the wheat.
Roundup Ready wheat also still needs regulatory approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency before it can be introduced commercially in Canada.
Those applications have been before the federal government for a year.
source: http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=4c26b189-e381-40a3-b276-166b646c439a 4jan04
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