Page 7 - #RealDirt - The Real Dirt on Farming: Saskatchewan Digest Edition

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For some people, scientiic progress can be intimidating. Thanks to sensational media headlines and clever social media campaigns, terms like biotechnology, GM or GMO and genetic engineering can strike fear – but what do they really mean?
• GMOs (genetically modiied organisms) are plants or animals with speciic genes added or removed which inluence their natural processes to produce more and better food. This science is called biotechnology.
• GMO plants can be resistant to certain pests or diseases, so farmers need fewer pesticides, labour and fuel to grow a healthy crop.
• GMO foods are nutritionally and chemically identical to food grown
from non-GMO crops, and more than 2,000 scientiic studies have found GMOs are safe.
• Plant biotechnology can have human health beneits too, like nuts without allergenic proteins; tobacco plants to ight Crohn’s disease; or tomatoes with more lycopene, a cancer-ighting antioxidant.
6 Let’s talk about antibiotic use
Keeping animals healthy is a top priority for farmers and veterinarians. Not only can a serious health problem cause suffering to livestock and poultry, it can also wipe out a farm’s – or even a whole industry’s – animals. Prevention, through the use of vaccines, is always preferred over treatment. Think of your own pet. You feed it the right foods and take it to the vet to keep it healthy. Farmers want their animals to be healthy too. Good housing, hygiene, nutrition and biosecurity are all common strategies farmers use to maintain and improve their animals’ health.
• The use of antibiotics in farm animals is strictly regulated by Health Canada. We use them to treat or prevent illness and control the spread of disease.
• Canadian meat is free of drug residues – that’s according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which monitors this.
• Resistance is a concern for everyone. It’s a complex topic and critically important research is ongoing in both human and animal medicine.
What is biotechnology or GMO?
The Real Dirt on Farming 7
“We care about raising chickens
Chicken farmers Scott and Heather Longelaar and sons Dylan and Nathan, Waldheim, SK
in a healthy, hu”
mane way as much as you do.
Quick fact:
If Canadian farmers stopped using pesticides and
GMOs, we’d need another Saskatchewan - 37 million more acres to grow the same amount of food we do today!