GM Crops: GM cotton crucial for Australian advantage
Checkbiotech
July 6, 2007
Excerpt…
The cotton industry must continue to lead the way with genetically modified crops in Australia if it is to retain a competitive edge, according to Professor James Dale with the Queensland University of Technology.
Prof Dale, who is an expert in GM crops and currently working on a GM banana project, said that adoption of new traits would be the best method of combating the pressures of increased production in developing nations.
"The cost of GM cotton is of course significantly lower than conventional cotton, with the number of sprays going from 14 per season down to one or two," he said.
"But it doesn't matter what technology you use, you are going to see a constant improvement in production.
"If you don't keep up with the rest of the world, they will leave you behind."
In addressing a recent Rural Press Club lunch in Brisbane, Prof Dale was asked whether this meant that cotton growers were thus reliant solely on biotech giants such as Monsanto and Syngenta to provide this technology.
He said while this was currently the case, there were a number of groups around the country doing 'world class' research into GM.
"One of the difficulties we have as researchers, particularly in southern States, is the moratorium on GM crops, which really puts us at a disadvantage in being able to attract the funding that we should be able to attract," he said….
Full article at Checkbiotech.
