STORY: :: A genetically modified mustard plant is dividing Canadian farmers

:: Regina, Canada

Norm Hall, Farmer and Chair of Sask Mustard

"We don't want to see it at all, just for the sake of the mustard industry as a whole. This InVigor Gold has no fit here. And talking to our colleagues in the U.S., they don't want it either. And it's just a bad move. Just like Roundup Ready Wheat. Roundup Ready Alfalfa. That's not around because there was a bunch of farmer pushback and so we're pushing back.

:: Some growers fear it will contaminate their non-GMO crops, threatening overseas demand

:: Dallas Leduc, Farmer

If it's going to have a higher yield potential like what the surveys say, what the trials say, gonna have a higher yield potential, but the same weed control of conventional canola, then why wouldn't you want to grow a higher, more profitable crop? I mean, that's the whole reason. Like I said before, the bottom line is the bottom line. If you're not earning a good profit, you figure out a way to turn a profit. And have that mustard variety or canola variety that has a mustard traits in it, that's going to have a more profitability, that's what we're going to grow.

Mustard is a tiny crop in Canada, with usually less than 220,000 U.S. tons of mustard produced by a few hundred farmers. Mustard production soars and sags with volatile world prices and local weather, like other specialty crops. Canadian canola growers, by contrast, usually plant more than 20 million acres of their crop, which produces upwards of 20 million US tons. That makes canola Canada's biggest source of crop income by far.

That's why so many are excited about the drought-resistant GMO mustard plant. Global agricultural giant BASF hopes to win approval from Canadian and U.S. agencies for commercialization as soon as next year in the U.S. and a couple of years later in Canada.

It's not without risk, however. The GMO plant looks nearly identical to a traditional mustard plant. Neighboring fields could be contaminated with seeds and pollen carried on the wind or by bees. Both traditional brown and oriental mustards and the new mustard canola are brassica junceas, so they can breed, with pollen from one type fertilizing the other.

Many Canadian mustard growers and sellers fear the door could slam shut if traces of the hybrid mustard-canola were detected.