The federal government’s Agriculture and Food Reference Group handed down its report last week titled ‘Creating Our Future: Agriculture and food policy for the next generation’ (4,700 kbs). It is very long, over 200 pages, and covers a range of issues including GM food crops. I haven’t had a proper read yet, but received the following note from Roger Kalla:
Jennifer,
You might be interested to know that the Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group (that called for submissions to its review of Agriculture and Food policy in August) has delivered its report to the Minister for Agriculture.
It was reported in Friday’s The Age under the heading ‘Call for ban to GM crops to end’.
I had a conversation with the Gene Technology Regulator, Sue Meek, about it on Wednesday at the launch of the Victorian Agribiosciences Centre.
Sue was very encouraged by the findings of the review led by the leader of the National Farmers Federation, Peter Corish, which put the emphasis on the lifting of the GM crop moratoria so that the Australian farmers could catch up with the rest of the world.
By the way, during the launch Minister Brumby was unashamedly spruiking for a new comapny Gramina PL which has developed GM grass with new health and animal production traits. The GM rye grass is hypoallergenic and has got a superior herbage quality.
No sneeze (humans) and sweeter taste (cows) are the real benefits of these GM grasses.
The problem is that they can’t be grown in Australia and have had to be field evaluated in the US!
Regards,
Roger
The National Farmers Federation has so far been silent on GM issues. It is great to see Peter Corish calling for a lifting of the bans and to see The Age reporting this.
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You can read my submission to the Reference Group by clicking here.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.