It is a pity that GM canola has arrived in Australia, not as a crop for farmers to grow, but as a shipment of seed grown in Canada ready for crushing in Australia.
Indeed yesterday a shipment of genetic engineered canola came into the Port of Newcastle.
Robert Green, from Cargill was interview by ABC radio Newcastle* and he said:
It is a matter of supply and demand. If we had not imported the grain there would have been companies shutting down and more oils being imported into the company. We consulted widely with the various government offices to make sure we were not breaching anything. Australian exports do not get preferential treatment for the GM free status. If you look at yields in export markets and trades our exports are falling behind. The canola will be used for oil and a protein meal. The customers who use the products will be within the food standard guidelines and labelling will be where it needs to be.
Greenpeace responded with comment that:
Australian crops could be at risk with now the first ever imported shipment of genetically engineered canola arrived in Newcastle.
I am not sure what Australia could be at risk from except more misinformation from Greenpeace. The bottomline is that Canadian farmers have been growing GM canola for about 10 years and much of the world eating the oil from this canalo for about as long.
The reality is that Greenpeace ran a campaign beginning in about 2001 to block the planting of GM canola varieties in Australia on the false premise that food from genetically modified (GM) crops is inherently dangerous. The NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian governments gave in to the Greenpeace campaigning and there is now a moratorium preventing the planting of GM food crops in those states. Cotton is exempt on the basis it is grown primarily for fibre, nevermind that locally grown cotton seed is crushed and turned into vegetable oil for Australian consumption.
As I recently explained in a piece for ABC Counterpoint, Australian agriculture is becoming increasingly uncompetitive as farmers give in to luddites: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2006/1782111.htm
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* ABC Newcastle (Newcastle)
Mornings, 05/12/2006 09:49AM Compere: Garth Russell
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.