Join us to stop the company Bayer from selling genetically modified (GM) salad greens and seeds. These GM greens are mustard greens (Brassica juncea) that have been gene edited using CRISPR to taste less mustardy. Bayer’s GM greens are an attempt to break open the market for more gene-edited fruits and vegetables, and start selling GM seeds to small gardeners.
The campaign is off to a great start. Thank you to everyone who is bringing our new “No GMO Salad” campaign flyer to their local Seedy Saturday events. Please contact Fionna at outreach@cban.ca to get flyers to distribute.
Join us to protect our produce and protect our seeds from genetic engineering. Click here to subscribe for updates in the new No GMO Salad campaign.
See below for more actions you can take today, event notices and more information about the new campaign. www.cban.ca/GMOsalad
Upcoming Events
Film Screening & Fundraising Event. Sudbury, Ontario. February 5, 2025. Join CBAN and The Foodshed Project for a film screening and fundraising event on Wednesday February 5 featuring the award-winning documentary Modified: A food lover’s journey into GMOs by Canadian filmmaker Aube Giroux.
Find CBAN at these upcoming Seedy events in Ontario. Come out and meet Fionna:
- Seedy Sudbury: 10am-3pm, College Boreal, Sudbury, ON.
- Evergreen Brickworks Seedy Weekend: Saturday and Sunday, March 8 and 9, 9am-2pm, Evergreen Brick Works 550 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON.
- Guelph Seedy Saturday: Saturday March 22, 2025 10am-3pm, 55 Wyndham Street North Guelph, ON.
Check the list of Seedy Saturdays to find an event near you.
Take Action
Take action in the new campaign to stop GM mustard greens and other GM fruits and vegetables:
- If you are a Seedy Saturday/Sunday volunteer: We have designed a special information flyer for Seedy events. Pease share this flyer at your event and help stop this dangerous threat to seed sovereignty. Do you have space at your event where our flyer could be made available? Is there someone from your event-planning team who might be willing to be a main contact with CBAN in the lead up to the event (i.e. someone we can share the flyer with?) If so, please email Fionna at outreach@cban.ca.
- If you are a local seed company or seed producer: Are you attending any events (farmers’ markets, Seedy Saturday/Sunday events, etc.) this winter or spring where you can share the new action flyer? If so, please email Fionna at outreach@cban.ca.
- If you are a market gardener, home gardener or greens producer: Make sure you are buying non-GM seeds. Buy non-GM Brassica juncea seeds and lettuce seeds/salad mixes. Now is the time to write to your seed company and ask them not to sell GMO salad greens. Click here for a list of seed companies that will not be selling the GMO salad greens.
- If you are a consumer who does not grow any vegetables: Write to the head office of your grocery store to ask them not to sell any GM salad greens or other GM vegetables. Click here for your grocery store contact.
- Everyone: Click here to subscribe for updates and action alerts in the No GMO Salad campaign.
More information and updates are posted at our campaign webpage www.cban.ca/GMOsalad
GM Non-Mustardy Mustard Greens
These genetically modified leafy greens are the first gene-edited vegetable in North America (produced using CRISPR), and only the second genetically modified vegetable grown in Canada (after GM sweet corn). (For a list of all GM foods on the market see www.cban.ca/gmfoods.)
Bayer told CBAN that two of the GM greens (Brassica juncea) varieties were in grower trials in the US in 2024 and that growers could start sending produce to US grocery stores soon. Bayer says that these GM greens could reach the Canadian market through these growers, or from Canadian growers, “in the near future”. They will likely be sold in packaged, ready-to-eat salad mixes and may be marketed as more nutritious than lettuce: The spicy mustard flavour was removed from the greens so they could be advertised as “leafy greens that don’t bite back! (a mustard green that eats like a lettuce).” These GM greens could be on the market as “mixed leaves, bunched, baby and teen leaf.” They will likely be grown and sold by a few large greens producers in the US and Canada. It is unlikely that companies will voluntarily label them as genetically engineered.
Bayer also says it is seeking a major home garden supplier to sell GM seeds to home gardeners and market gardeners. Targeting small growers with these GM seeds puts non-GMO plants at risk of contamination, threatening the tradition of seed-saving and the preservation of heritage seeds. GM contamination also threatens organic farmers’ livelihoods because organics prohibits the use of GMOs.
By introducing unlabelled, unregulated gene-edited vegetables intro grocery store produce sections and by selling the GM seeds to small gardeners, Bayer is testing the market to expand into other gene-edited fruits and vegetables.
Read our alert for more information.
More information and updates are posted at our new campaign webpage www.cban.ca/gmosalad
Donate today to support our work. www.cban.ca/donate.