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Gene World
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Aug/Sep 2005

GE canola contamination in three states

On 14 July, Australian authorities confirmed that a shipment of Victorian canola seed, bound for Japan, was contaminated with Bayer's "Topas" herbicide-resistant GE canola. The source of the contamination is believed to have been either Bayer’s GE plantings in Victoria back in 1998 or imported seed from contaminated North American stocks.

"Only Japanese insistence on testing the Victorian canola shipment for foreign genes brought this contamination to light," said Gene Ethics Network director Bob Phelps. "Australia's GE-free status is a great marketing advantage over most other food-exporting countries, so a nationwide GE clean-up is now urgently needed to restore Asian, Middle Eastern and European buyer confidence in the GE-free status of our products."

Biological Farmers of Australia has called for the Federal Government to "immediately halt further seed imports that are deemed to be at risk of GE contamination, pending the introduction of a GE screening program". BFA spokesperson Scott Kinnear said that seeds to be considered include canola, soy, corn, potato, sugarbeet and cotton.

Similar contamination has since come to light in Western Australia, and the CSIRO admits to deliberately contaminating 140 tonnes of conventional canola with GE canola in NSW last year to assess GE/GM testing systems. The contaminated seed in NSW was handled by Graincorp, which sold it to an unnamed buyer somewhere in Australia.

"If this canola has been grown in Australia in the trial areas in other States, the Federal Government has deliberately broken a State law," said Juliet McFarlane, spokesperson for the Network of Concerned Farmers. "If this canola has been imported, it shows how vulnerable farmers are to sabotage of Australia’s GM-free image..."

[Sources: Gene Ethics Network media releases, 15 July & 10 August; NCF, 27 July, www.non-gm-farmers.com; True Food Network, 29 July 2005]

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", August/September 2005; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]