NEWS: GM crops the `dawn of a new era' in farming
This letter is from one of the readers of Border Watch, an Australian newspaper, and discusses the issue of genetically modified foods.. It has been republished in the website of Truth About Trade and Technology, an organization that highlights the importance of technology in modern trade.
Sir,
The puritanical tone of the articles and editorials on GM crops in your paper recently deserves some balance and rational discussion.
Currently, cotton growers in Australia have the right to choose whether or not they grow conventional or GM cotton.
Over 90pc of them choose GM because it is better for the environment, their workers and their lifestyle, and because it is 10pc more water efficient.
And they rarely if ever spray grubs anymore.
Canadian canola growers have the same rights as our cotton growers, and they choose to grow over 85pc of their crop to GM varieties.
We have just imported 55,000 tonnes of GM canola through Newcastle for domestic use from Canada, and yearly we import 350,000 tonnes of GM soy meal to boost our paltry production of about 50,000 tonnes and it has just been announced that we will import tens of thousands of tonnes of GM soybean for crushing here also.
The naysayers are saying that the sky will fall in, but it will not and our livestock industries will be able to
continue.
So we already grow, import and use GM crops extensively with only good effects.
Despite intense scrutiny by all and sundry, 11 years of growing GM crops in 21 countries with 530 million hectares
grown, has produced only positive results with safety.
We are constantly bombarded with the "clean and green" and "premium" markets.
That we are claiming a premium for our dreaming has been proven false many times.
Max Foster from ABARE says so, and goes on to say that we will lose billions of dollars for our backward stance.
Peter Portman from CBH, Australia's largest canola exporter says so, and Andrew Broad from Victoria has just done a Nuffield Scholarship on this very subject and says so.
Japan, possibly the world's most discriminating market, imports annually about 300,000 tonnes of non-GM canola from Australia and 1,650,000 tonnes of GM canola from Canada at the same price, according to these people.
The EU has had a ban on GM canola because they have been a net exporter of canola in six of the last seven years, but they are now using bio-diesel extensively and will look to import every year.
Therefore, as of early this year they are lifting their ban, and are already importing large amounts of oil from
Canadian canola.
Our peak farming group, the National Farmers Federation, has a strong policy position for the immediate introduction
of GM crops, and every state farming organisation has a positive policy to GM crop introduction.
Peter Corish's Report, "Creating Our Future: Agriculture and Food Policy for the Next Generation" was very clear on the importance of immediate adoption of GM crops.
So why do we listen to these people with no interest in our health or welfare, no understanding of history or science, and no acceptance of the reality that GM crops have already been accepted worldwide (even in Australia) and are already proven clean and green?
And we are just at the dawn of this exciting new era with frost tolerance, drought tolerance and disease tolerance
already about to become a reality to our competitors.
The greenhouse benefits with less fuel, insecticides and fertiliser producing more crops off less area will prove overwhelming in this debate, and rightly so.
Australia has a choice whether to be part of the solution, or part of the problem.
It is critical that we break the link between economic growth and environmental damage, and GM crops will be a primary tool in that. The Australian situation makes Monty Python look sane.
