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 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.
See below for more actions you can take today, event notices and more information about the new campaign.
Upcoming Events
Film Screening & Fundraising Event. Sudbury, Ontario. February 5, 2025. Join CBAN and The Foodshed Project for a featuring the award-winning documentary Modified: A food lover鈥檚 journey into GMOs by Canadian filmmaker Aube Giroux.
Find CBAN at these upcoming Seedy events in Ontario. Come out and meet Fionna:
- : 10am-3pm, College Boreal, Sudbury, ON.
- : Saturday and Sunday, March 8 and 9, 9am-2pm, Evergreen Brick Works 550 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON.
- : Saturday March 22, 2025 10am-3pm, 55 Wyndham Street North Guelph, ON.
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 . 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鈥� markets, Seedy Saturday/Sunday events, etc.) this winter or spring where you can share ? 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.
- 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.
- Everyone:
More information and updates are posted at our campaign webpage
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 .)
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, 鈥渋n the near future鈥�. 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 鈥渓eafy greens that don鈥檛 bite back! (a mustard green that eats like a lettuce).鈥� These GM greens could be on the market as 鈥渕ixed leaves, bunched, baby and teen leaf.鈥� 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鈥� 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.
More information and updates are posted at our new campaign webpage
Donate today to support our work. .