Most of South Australia’s graingrowers can see economic benefits from having access to genetically-modified crops but the majority would not support the moratorium on growing them lifted. [...] Only 36pc of respondents supported the moratorium being lifted, with the strongest support coming from the Mid North and Yorke Peninsula. More than 54pc said they did not support lifting the ban.

Professor Sir Gustav Nossal, who chaired the state review that advocated the end of the moratorium, said canola was just the beginning. ”The strains coming down the pike are so much more important … We’re talking about frost-resistant plants, we’re talking about drought-resistant plants, we’re talking about high-protein wheat,” he said. After months analysing 250 submissions split roughly 50-50 on the pros and cons of GM canola, Sir Gustav told a media conference that his review panel was satisfied that 10 years of research into the canola crop ensured its safety.

In the race to produce drought-resistant crop varieties, conventional breeders have proven they can meet the challenge [to] perform well under both water sufficient and deficient conditions. In the meantime, the transgenic, or GM, front must first go through a gene-discovery phase, sifting through entire genomes for those sequences that can nudge plant physiology to make better use of available water. [...] However, the complexity of a plant’s response to water stress tends to cause drought-tolerance transgenes to have additional, usually unpredictable, and often unwanted effects on other traits, including yield and quality.

Japanese consumers are pleading with the Australian government to ban genetically modified (GM) canola. The Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ), which has 1,250 organisations representing more than two million Japanese shoppers, will meet with the Australian Embassy in Tokyo to ask for the ban on Thursday. ”We need you to keep supplying us with GM-free,” CUJ spokeswoman Michiyo Koketsu said.

The battle for hearts and minds in the GM debate continued last week at a Dookie forum organised by Victorian Farmers Federation with funding from the Federal Government. A Canadian farmer was joined by scientists to explain how GM canola is being grown and how it is being marketed worldwide, in a forum attended by about 50 people, including some GM cynics.

The South Australian Government denies that its decision to continue the moratorium on genetically modified crops will push up export prices. Earlier this month the Government extended the moratorium, despite bans being lifted in New South Wales and Victoria. ABB Grain says it will still have to bear the costs associated with testing any products it handles.

Foods from genetically manipulated (GM) crops and animals are rejected by most farmers, shoppers and food processors around the world. If these mutant foods were fully labelled, as they should be, consumer rejection would ensure that GM food crops were not grown. The environmental, social, ethical and economic impacts of radical new GM technology outweigh any promised benefits. Federal agriculture minister Tony Burke claims GM crops may contribute to easing the impacts of global climate change and the drought. But the salt-tolerant GM crops that he says will be our saviour are at least a decade or two away, if they ever eventuate. These promised band-aids should not affect our decisions now.

The Network of Concerned Farmers (NCF) is threatening legal action against farmers growing GM canola unless risk management is introduced prior to planting. The GM moratoria is set to lapse in Victoria on February 28th and in New South Wales on March 3rd and NCF believe fair risk management has been denied. ”GM contamination will be uncontrollable but no minimum limit of contamination has been set for companies to deduct a user fee from our income,” said Julie Newman, National Spokesperson for the Network of Concerned Farmers. ”Its a blank cheque from farmers incomes to the biotech companies wether you want to grow GM or not.”

The South Australian government’s decision to stay GM-free for at least another two years should be a wake up call to the GM jockeys in Victoria and NSW. SA joins WA and Tasmania in saying that GM-free is a key to the clean, green appeal of Australia’s primary products, to shoppers around the world. ”We applaud the SA government’s good sense, by keeping the whole state GM-free despite their advisory committee’s recommendation that only Kangaroo Island be GM-free,” says Gene Ethics Director, Bob Phelps.

South Australia will extend its ban on genetically modified crops, keeping the market in the two biggest grain-growing states closed to Monsanto Co. and Bayer AG. […..] The decision restricts an avenue for expansion in Australia, the world’s third-largest canola exporter, for Monsanto and Bayer that was opened when Victoria and New South Wales ended four-year bans on genetically modified canola crops in November. Western Australia, the biggest grain producer, said last year it won’t remove the ban. [...] ”There is no immediate need to give the go ahead for what would have been only a small number of growers wanting to grow crops from the two GM canola seeds developed by companies, Monsanto and Bayer,” McEwen said.