It is not every day that I agree with the Hon Warren Truss MP but today’s media release from him is a beauty:
Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss today called on State and Territory governments to end their moratoria on the cultivation of GM crops if they are at all serious about making their jurisdictions investment centres for biotechnology.
Mr Truss said that all the States, and the ACT, had sent delegations to the BIO 2005 conference in Philadelphia in the United States this week – looking to attract investment in their respective biotechnology sectors.
“How can the States and Territories hope to attract any investment while they keep their moratoria on GM crop cultivation in place?” he said.
“You also have to question the credibility of Victoria hosting next year’s Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference while maintaining a moratorium on the commercial use of agricultural biotechnology.”
Mr Truss said that, since 2003, the Australian Government had invested around $1.29 billion in biotechnology-related R&D.
“But the State’s moratoria mean that only the cotton and cut-flower industries can take advantage of the latest developments in GM crop breeding,” he said.
“The real losers are Australian farmers, who are quickly falling behind their major competitors as they are denied the benefits of new technologies.
“How much longer can Australian farmers match overseas competitors if unscientific State bans on genetically-modified organisms (GMO) deny them access to higher-yielding, pest and disease resistant, drought-tolerant plant varieties?
“These bans are usually based on claims that being GMO free will deliver marketing advantages for Australian products.
“How many more years do we have to wait for the so-called ‘market advantage’ to eventuate?
“Australia must continue to evaluate new GMO varieties in a sound scientific way to help build consumer confidence in the safety and benefits of these products. Agricultural biotechnology in Australia will go no where unless State-imposed bans on GMOs are lifted.
“If a particular State government wants a future as a centre for biotechnology, it must do more than offer support for the related research and declare itself a ‘bio-hub’.
“That government must allow that research to be commercialised and used by Australian farmers,” Mr Truss said.
This is Part 5 of my series on GM Food Crops. Part 4 was posted on 20th June and can be found at http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000681.html while Part 3 was posted on 14th and can be found at http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000662.html .
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Another example of how government interference, based on incomplete science, interferes with the market.
No Monsanto is going to produce a GM product that kills its target.
Rather, it is the ill-informed output from Greenies and other single-issue groups, that mesmerise our media, which then, to varying degrees, affects public policy.
Please inform yourself of the unsound scientific basis for GE [GM] crops and foods. This is best done by searching for original research by Arpad Pusztai, and the latest follow-up to this.
The “market” is not the ultimate determiner; the future good of the planet and the human race is!
I thought that Queensland and the NT(?) didn’t join the moratoria. In Qld there is already commercial GM cotton and carnations plantings with peas and canola about to be released. I’m also pretty that there are trials under way for GM sugarcane, pineapples and papaya not to mention another 3 or 4 types of GM cotton.
I don’t think that GM crops should be banned but strident testing is needed to ensure that the GM crop doesn’t turn into a ‘super weed’ and to assure the public of it’s safety.
Correct Simon, no moratorium in Queensland or NT. There is, however, a moratorium on the growing of cotton (GM and non-GM) in the Northern Territory!
The NSW legislation that bans GM food crops, exempts GM cotton on the basis that it is grown primarily for fibre. Nevermind that 35 percent of the vegetable oil consumed in Australia is from cotton seed oil – which is nowly mostly GM and not segregated.
Hmmm,
New species evolve by mutation to adapt to new environments.
GM foods are simply a modern examplar of this fact.