Corn

Take Action

Is your sweet corn genetically modified?

The only way to find out is to ask. You have a powerful voice when you ask your local farmer or write to the head office of your grocery chain.

1. Ask your farmer at the roadside, farm gate, or farmers’ market if they are selling GM sweet corn. You can even ask the Farmers’ Market to check for you.
2. Write to the head office of your grocery store and ask them to remove GM sweet corn from their store. Tell them you don’t want to buy it. Click here to for grocery store contacts.
3. Buy organic sweet corn – organic farming prohibits GM seeds and synthetic pesticides.

Consumer Action Guide: Click here for information on GM sweet corn to help you take action. Your consumer actions are making a difference!

Updates

CBAN Factsheet: Genetically engineered Bt insect-resistant corn poses human health risks, May 2024

Mexico restricts food uses of GM corn: “sin maíz no hay país” – “without corn, there is no country”

A 2023 Mexican Presidential Decree restricts the use of genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) corn for the flour used to make traditional foods like tortilla. The US government, backed by the Canadian government is challenging the Mexican GM corn ban via the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA). January 29, 2024: CBAN Briefing – Canada & US vs. Mexico’s Ban on GM Corn: The CUSMA trade dispute champions the biotech industry over food sovereignty

Click here for more information and updates on the trade dispute www.cban.ca/trade.

GM Sweet Corn

Updates – June 2024:

• There has been a small (undetermined) amount of GM sweet corn, from Syngenta, on the market in North America from around 2000 (“Attribute”). In 2011 Monsanto (now Bayer) also launched a line of GM sweet corn varieties (“Performance Series”).
• GM sweet corn is the only vegetable and whole GM food that is grown in Canada – as opposed to GM grain corn, which is widely grown in Canada and used for processed into food ingredients, animal feed and biofuels.
• GM sweet corn is the third possible GM fruit or vegetable in the produce section of Canadian grocery stores. There could be some GM papaya (from the U.S. and China only) and some varieties of GM squash (from the U.S. only) that end up on grocery shelves in Canada.
• All of the GM corn varieties currently sold in Canada are genetically engineered to be herbicide-tolerant, and most of these are also insect resistant. In 2023, there were 24 brands of insect-resistant GM corn on the market in Canada: two of these are sweet corn; 22 of the 24 brands (over 90%) are tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate. 19 of the insect resistant corn brands (79%) are tolerant to two or more herbicides and why three brands (12.5%) are tolerant to three herbicides: glyphosate, glufosinate, and 2-4,D.

Stacked Traits in Corn

Most GM corn varieties on the market in Canada and the US are “stacked” with more than one Bt protein. In 2023, 24 of the 26 varieties of Bt corn on the market in Canada had more than one Bt protein, and all of them also had one or more herbicide-tolerant traits. Eighteen of the 26 products expressed more than two Bt toxins.

Health Canada does not assess the food safety of plants with stacked GM traits: if each of the individual GM traits (events or lines) has been approved, companies are free to stack these traits together without a government risk assessment. For example, in 2010, Monsanto commercialized its first “Smartstax” corn that had eight different GM traits – six insect-resistant traits and two herbicide-tolerance traits – but this product was not assessed for safety by Canadian regulators.

June 28, 2011 – Press Release: Report Exposes Unstudied Risks of Monsanto’s Genetically Modified “SmartStax” Corn: EU Member State critiques and leaked industry documents uncover safety questions.

Resources on “SmartStax”

• Summary and Background on SmartStax corn and risk questions from CBAN
• Testbiotech released a critical new report 
• Read CBAN’s article in Alive Magazine. February 2010
• CBAN Opinion: Stacked traits lack assessment, Western Producer, October 15, 2009
• Monsanto’s response: Stacked Traits good for growers, Western Producer, November 5, 2009
• Why did Monsanto’s latest foods get a free pass from Health Canada? CBAN article in rabble.ca, September 2009
• Press Release – July 29, 2009: No Safety Assessment of GE Corn by Health Canada: Canada Ignores International Food Safety Guidelines
• Press Release – July 24, 2009: CFIA ’s Irresponsible Rubber-Stamping of New Genetically Engineered Corn No environmental risk assessment, and reduced environmental stewardship requirements for new Monsanto/Dow “SmartStax”
• CBAN’s letter to Health Canada. July 28, 2009
• Response to Health Canada: ‘SmartStax’ Genetic Corn Really Safe? Montreal Gazette, CBAN Opinion Letter, July 30, 2009
• CBAN letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, August 3, 2009

Government Regulation of Stacked Traits

CBAN demands that:

1. Health Canada immediately request that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency rescind its authorization of the genetically modified (GM) eight-trait corn called ‘SmartStax’ (Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences)
2. Health Canada initiate a full food safety assessment of the GM corn as set out by the Codex Alimentarius Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants.
3. Health Canada request the Canadian Food Inspection Agency halt any further approvals of stacked trait products until Health Canada has reviewed its Novel Foods Regulations and initiated a system-wide review of the entire regulatory system for GM foods and crops (“Novel Foods” and “Plants with Novel Traits”).

• Click here to read the full letter from CBAN to Health Canada. July 28, 2009.
• Read the Minister of Health’s response.
• Click here to read CBAN’s letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, August 3, 2009.
• Read the CFIA’s response to CBAN.

The UN Codex guidelines for GM food safety assessment state that “unintended effects in recombinant-DNA plants may also arise through the insertion of DNA sequences an/or may arise through subsequent conventional breeding of the recombinant-DNA plant.’’ (this is how stacked trait GE crops like ‘SmartStax’ are produced – through the conventional breeding or crossing of GM plants) and that such crops should go through a full safety assessment (para 14, CAC/GL 45-2003).

The international Codex Alimentarius Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants clearly recommends safety assessments of stacked trait GE crops. The Guideline clearly states that unintended effects can arise not only from genetically engineered (GE) plants, but can also arise when those GE plants are crossed via conventional breeding (as in the case of stacked-trait crops such as ‘SmartStax’): “Unintended effects in recombinant-DNA plants may also arise through the insertion of DNA sequences an/or may arise through subsequent conventional breeding of the recombinant-DNA plant” [boldadded] (para 14, CAC/GL 45-2003). Furthermore, the Guidelines also state that such crops should go through a full safety assessment: “The assessment for unintended effects takes into account the agronomic/phenotypic characteristics of the plant that are typically observed by breeders in selecting new varieties for commercialization. These observations by breeders provide a first screen for plants that exhibit unintended traits. New varieties that pass this screen are subjected to safety assessment as described in Sections 4 and 5” [bold added] (para 17, CAC/GL 45-2003).

2,4-D-Tolerant Corn

Canada has approved 2,4-D-tolerant GM corn and soy. On October 15, 2014, the US government also approved Dow’s 2,4-D/glyphosate herbicide mix, to go along with GM 2,4-D tolerant crops. Now Dow AgroSciences has all the approvals it needs to start marketing these GM herbicide tolerant crops in Canada and the US.

• Click here for some background information on 2,4-D and 2,4-D crops.

Resources

• Identifying and Avoiding GM Sweet Corn Seed in Canada, 2024 Information for vegetable growers
• “GM Sweet Corn in Canada: Information for Action” 2024 Details on GM sweet corn. Get your questions about GM sweet corn answered here.
• Genetically engineered Bt insect-resistant corn poses human health risks, May 2024
• “Where in the world are GM crops and foods?” provides CBAN’s investigation into sweet corn and field corn numbers, 2015.
• Maize & Biodiversity: The Effects of Transgenic Maize in Mexico – Key Findings and Recommendations, Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Secretariat Report, 2004.