Email text to send to your MP

Here is a sample letter that you can personalize to send to your Member of Parliament. Remember to attach the briefing from CBAN – click here to download it.

I am writing as your constituent to ask you to take urgent action to protect food safety and the environment.

As of May 3, many new gene edited foods and seeds can enter the market without any government safety checks. Did you know this is happening?

The Minister of Health and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food have allowed Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to change “regulatory guidance” to remove government safety oversight for some gene-edited genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (they are exempt from regulation if they have no foreign DNA). This needs to be immediately reversed.

It is your responsibility to ensure that Canada’s food supply is safe but, instead, safety assessments for some gene-edited foods and seeds have been handed to the product developers.

The changes will could mean also mean unknown gene-edited foods in our grocery stores because companies are not required to report them. Even the federal government won’t know that these gene-edited products exist.

I demand government oversight over the introduction of all genetically engineered foods and seeds, including those produced through the new techniques of gene editing.

I ask you to strengthen the regulations to ensure all genetically engineered foods and seeds, including all gene-edited organisms, are assessed for safety by the government, and reported to the government.

Please read the attached briefing from the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network about the changes and what they mean.

I demand transparency and government oversight of all genetically engineered foods and seeds. Please take action to reverse these new exemptions to regulation.

Thank you for your action on this important issue.