Conventional "novel" barley variety caught in GM crop crossfire- innovation stifled.

U of S pulls new barley variety over regulations

- Murray Lyons, The StarPhoenix, April 24, 2007, Via Agbioview

One of Canada's most respected plant breeders says the federal regulatory process is stifling a University of Saskatchewan effort to register a new variety of hulless barley.

The U of S cannot afford to continue navigating Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regulations and has dropped plans to register the variety.

Brian Rossnagel, a barley and oat breeder at the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at U of S, called a meeting Monday of other plant researchers and people working in the feed and livestock industries to explain why the low phytate, hulless barley variety developed by CDC should not have to be subjected to CFIA's process for regulating feeds with novel traits.

The university and CDC researchers got so frustrated with the regulatory process that they decided this winter they will not seek approval of the low phytate barley, currently identified only as HB379, as long as CFIA insists upon regulating it under the heading of "novel feed."

Rossnagel says the irony is competitors to Canada in producing feed could soon have their own low phytate hulless varieties developed at the University of Idaho... continues at link