October 31, 2017
(For immediate release)
Fredericton, NEW BRUNSWICK. A retired research scientist for the Canadian government and expert on genetically modified foods, Dr. Thierry Vrain, will be in New Brunswick between October 30 and November 2, 2017, where he will be presenting his findings to the public in four communities: St. Louis-de-Kent, Edmundston, Petitcodiac and Fredericton Junction.
Dr. Vrain worked for 30 years as a research scientist for the Canadian government in Québec and British Columbia where he conducted research on genetically modified potatoes, among other projects. In British Columbia, Dr. Vrain was section Head of the Biotechnology and Nematology sections at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre (Agriculture Canada) in Summerland.
The most common genetically engineered crops have been modified to be resistant to glyphosate-based herbicides such as Monsanto’s Round-Up, and this has been a major focus of Dr. Vrain’s work. For the past decade, he has been travelling the world to inform the public of the unacceptable risks that glyphosate poses to human health and the environment.
In New Brunswick glyphosate-based herbicides are widely sprayed on agricultural land and on forests or softwood plantations to kill off hardwoods that might complete with conifers planted for pulp and other low-value wood products.
Dr. Vrain’s visit could not be more timely. The subject of herbicide spraying on public forests and on NB Power right-of-ways is garnering a great deal of public attention and provoking widespread protest, spearheaded by the work of the Stop Spraying NB movement (Facebook Group: Stop Spraying in New Brunswick).
In recent years, glyphosate has come under a great deal of scrutiny world-wide. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s research arm labelled glyphosate a “probable carcinogen” and in 2017, a long-term study published in Science Reports linked “chronic ultra-low dose” exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides with liver disease in rats. The same year documents unsealed by court order in the United States revealed collusion between an official in the Environmental Protection Agency and Monsanto to falsify academic reports and stifle others to give glyphosate-based herbicides a clean bill of health. More recently, California has added glyphosate to its list of cancer-causing agents that must come with a warning label.
In New Brunswick, a number of municipalities, including Moncton, Cap Pelé, Tracadie, Miscou, Tide Head, Paquetville, Sackville and community groups such as the Saint-Quentin and Cap Pelée/Beaubassin-Est Chambers of Commerce, have publicly expressed their support of the Stop Spraying NB movement by either sending letters of concern to provincial government or signing a resolution against spraying in our forests and under NB Power lines.
The movement to stop pesticide spraying in New Brunswick on public lands and under NB Power lines is rapidly gaining momentum. Signs calling for an end to the spraying are popping up all over New Brunswick. At the Union of Municipalities Tradeshow on September 29, 2017, municipal politicians and staff noted that, “there are signs everywhere.”
More than 35,000 people have already signed a petition to stop the spraying, with more coming in every day. Citizens of this province are growing more and more aware of the immense value of their diverse Acadian forests, their wildlife, their drinking water, their rivers and lakes, forest foods, and their health. They are demanding a ban on the spraying of herbicide on their woodlands.
Dr. Vrain’s presentations are of utmost importance, focusing as they do on the research that Health Canada is choosing to ignore, the negative effects of glyphosate residue in and on edible plants, including the berries, mushrooms, medicinal plants that NB citizens gather in our forests, and which wildlife depend on for their survival.
Dr. Thierry Vrain’s public presentations are being hosted and funded by local community groups, together with a number of grassroots organizations that are listed below, and will help the public become better informed about scientific knowledge on long-term, low-dose exposure to glyphosate.
Wednesday, November 1, 7-9 pm
Maritime Motorsports Hall of fame
Petitcodiac, NB
(Organized in collaboration with SSNB Inc.)
Thursday, November 2, 7-9 pm
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 55
159 Sunbury Drive
Fredericton Junction, NB
(Organized in collaboration with The Right Not To Be Poisoned)
CONTACTS:
(English) Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy (Chair, SSNB Inc.): 506-292-7503 email: caroline@stopsprayingnb.ca www.stopsprayingnb.ca
(English) Morris Shannon (Right not to be Poisoned): (506) 455-4232 email: 245tmo@gmail.com
(French) Francine Levesque (Écovie): 506-284-2769 email: canot@explornet.ca
