There is confirmation of something canola farmers have been saying for years: that genetically modified canola is popping up where it wasn't planted and where it isn't wanted.

An Agriculture Canada study suggests the problem is in the seeds. More than half of the seed samples tested showed some level of genetically modified presence. The study's authors conclude that means almost every canola field planted with conventional seed will contain some genetically modified plants.

Rene Van Acker, a plant scientist at the University of Manitoba, is duplicating the Agriculture Canada study on test fields, checking to see how much genetically modified canola has found its way into conventional seed through pollen or accidental seed mixing.




"I think its very significant and I also think its a formal recognition that genetic pollution does happen," said Van Acker.

Van Acker is duplicating the study on test fields, checking to see how much genetically modified canola has found its way into conventional seed through pollen or accidental seed mixing.

For farmers it means adding a second kind of herbicide to their regular spraying to kill the plants that have been genetically modified to resist their regular herbicide.




For organic growers like Mark Loiselle it's a serious problem. "Any contamination of seed stock with genetically engineered crops is too much for organic production," he said. Loiselle is trying to launch a class action suit against the companies that make genetically modified canola. It's because of his legal challenge the Agriculture Canada study was released.

Earlier this year the CBC program Country Canada used the access to information law to get a copy of the study, but with large parts blacked out. It was only after Loiselle's lawyer applied to have the whole study that Agriculture Canada made it available.

"There's a lot at stake here for Canada and so we shouldn't have this stuff being hidden. There should be an open discussion," said Van Acker.

The Canadian Seed Growers Association helped to pay for the study. It says it wasn't released because it isn't finished. They also say it just confirms what they already knew. "What the report clearly indicates is that there isn't 100 per cent purity and we knew that before, so that is not rocket science to know that because that is the way mother nature is," said Dale Adolphe of the CSGA.