SEPTEMBER 2018 GERMINATION.CA 57 Who said what? CANOLA INDUSTRY “ONE OF OUR MOST ESSENTIAL ASSETS” The federal Competition Bureau has reached an agreement with BASF in connection with its proposed purchase of assets that Bayer must sell following its recent acquisition of Monsanto Company. Matthew Boswell, interim commissioner of competition, concluded that BASF’s acquisition of the Bayer assets would likelyhavesubstantiallylessenedorpreventedcompetitionin thesupplyofcanolaseedsandtraitsinCanadaduetoBASF’s pre-existing position in that market. To address those concerns, BASF has agreed to sell its Clearfield Production System for Canola and supporting assets to a buyer acceptable to the commissioner. “The canola industry contributes over $26 billion per year to the Canadian economy, making it one of our most essential agricultural assets. Today’s agreement with BASF is neces- sary to protect competition and innovation in this important industry following Bayer’s recent acquisition of Monsanto,” Boswell said in a statement. BASF’s Clearfield Production System for Canola is a non- genetically modified weed control system used by numerous canola seed companies in Canada. WE CAN FEED THE WORLD IF WE CHANGE OUR WAYS Current crop yields could provide nutritious food for the projected 2050 global population, but only if we make radical changes to our dietary choices, a new study shows. Researchers from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom have analyzed global and regional food supplies to reveal the flows of calories, protein and vital micro-nutrients from production through to human consumption. CombiningdatafromtheUNFoodandAgricultureOrganization(FAO)withfoodnutrientdata,andinformationonanimalgrazingand on human nutritional need, they explore whether we could feed a growing population with the food we already produce. They conclude that, even without improvements in crop yield, current crop production is sufficient to provide enough healthy food for the predicted 9.7 billion world population in 2050, although this will require radical shifts in behaviour. Most importantly, they say there must be fundamental changes to human diets, replacing most meat and dairy with plant-based alternatives, and a greater willingness to eat crops such as maize which are currently fed to animals. “Overall, industrialized meat and dairy production, which currently relies on feeding 34 per cent of human-edible crop calories to animals globally, is highly inefficient in terms of the provision of human nutrition,” says Nick Hewitt of the Lancaster Environment Centre. Reducing waste and excess consumption is also important, but quantitively less significant, the study shows. There is also a need for very significant changes to the socio-economic conditions of many people to ensure that everyone gets access to a healthy, balanced diet. JAPAN AGREES THAT CANADIAN WHEAT IS SAFE AND RELIABLE The decision by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture and the already- announceddecisionbySouthKoreaonJune26toresumeshipments ofCanadianwheatreaffirmstheexcellentqualityandconsistencyof Canadian the wheat supply, the federal government says. This marks an end to all international trade actions arising from Canada'sannouncementofanisolateddiscoveryofunauthorized genetically modified wheat in southern Alberta on June 14. “The Government of Canada welcomes the decision by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture to lift the temporary suspension on imports of Canadian wheat, following its own thorough scientific testing of Canadian wheat shipments,” the federal government said in a statement. Based on extensive scientific testing at that time, the Canadian government concluded that this unauthorized wheat is not pre- sentinthefoodoranimalfeedsystem,oranywhereotherthanthe isolatedsitewhereitwasdiscovered.Officialsworkedquicklyand collaboratively with Japanese authorities to provide the neces- sary information to convince Japan to resume shipments. “Canadaisasafeandreliableglobalsupplierofwheat,”thestate- ment goes on to say. Canadian wheat production in 2017 was 30 million tonnes across an area of 22 million acres, making it one of the largest field crops in Canada. Canadian exports of wheat globally are valued at approximately $6.6 billion annually.