Gene World
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Apr/May 2004

GE Food Crops Taken Off The Menu

Plans to grow genetically engineered/modified food crops in Australia are on hold indefinitely, after the NSW Government ruled out a 3,000-hectare trial of GM canola over 70 sites.

The shock decision came a week after Western Australia imposed an outright ban on GE/GM food crops and Victoria extended its moratorium for another four years.

NSW Agriculture Minister Ian Macdonald vetoed the large-scale commercial trials, despite his own GE advisory committee recommending they proceed. A walkout and minority report by those who want a GE-free future forced Mr Macdonald to promise that liability issues must be resolved.

Mr Macdonald said there would be no coexistence trial of GE crops for at least another year, but he would allow three small “scientific trials” covering a total of 420 hectares.

"It's a good, balanced decision; it will enable the farming community to evaluate what benefits, if any, there are," Mr Macdonald said. "By taking a cautious, staged approach, NSW is neither ruling out the potential of this technology nor jumping in without more science to guide us."

These large-scale trials would have been commercial releases in disguise. Even small-scale trials in Australia have a history of chronic breaches; and under the voluntary management guidelines that apply, any large-scale releases would be completely uncontrollable. Such releases would threaten contamination of non-GE farms and seed supplies nationally. They'd mean that Australia would lose its status as a GE-free food-producing country.

The decision is a major blow to chemical giants Monsanto and Bayer, who wanted to plant enough GM canola to fill a single shipping container, in an effort to ease farmers' concerns about coexistence with non-GM agriculture and consumer rejection.

Monsanto had no comment yesterday, but Bayer CropScience BioScience general manager Susie O’Neill said coexistence trials were essential and she was "very disappointed" by the decision.

The federal regulator approved Monsanto's Roundup Ready canola and Bayer’s InVigor canola as safe for human health and consumption last year, but final approval rests with the states.

The NSW decision blocks possible commercialisation of GM canola in the short term, as Tasmania and South Australia also have moratoriums and the climate in Queensland and the Northern Territory is too warm to grow canola crops.

In another development, Bayer CropScience has given up attempts to grow commercial GM maize in the UK. The decision, blamed by the company on government restrictions, means no GM crop will be grown commercially in the UK in 2005.

[Sources: GeneEthics Network press release, 26 March; The Australian, 2 April; The Independent, UK, 31 March 2004]

Compiled by Ruth Parnell

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", April/May 2004; 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]