[Mr Marsh’s lawyer Richard] Huston also said it was ”very disturbing” that such an important and influential Committee of the PGA, a group that should represent the rights of all farmers equally, had taken such a stance in response to farmers who wished to conduct their farming operations according to the Australian Standard for Organic Farming. ”Mr and Mrs Marsh are not claiming and have never claimed the ”right to veto” anything being done by their neighbours on the other side of their boundary fence,” Mr Huston said.

In Kojonup, WA, it is alleged that an organic farmer has suffered severe economic damage by his neighbours growing GM crops. [...] The ridiculous standard of liability that the organic farmer wishes to impose on his neighbours would mean the end of all progress in WA agriculture. If blame must be apportioned, it should lie with the organics industry for wasting the productive potential of good land by persevering with obsolete farming methods. “Organic” producers will make no contribution to the increased production required from every acre to satisfy the food needs of the world’s expanding population.

UNLIKE their US and Asian rivals, Australian farmers face barriers if they want to grow genetically modified foods. [...] Most farmers are eager adopters of improved technology. But they and the seed suppliers face hostility to GM technology from activists including consumerist organisations and organic farmers.

An organic farmer in the Great Southern says he will sue the owner of a neighbouring farm, after being stripped of his organic certification because genetically modified canola was found on his property. Kojonup farmer Steven Marsh alleges the GM material blew in from a neighbouring property belonging to Michael Baxter. Mr Marsh says he will lose a significant amount of income without his organic certification.

A BOYUP Brook farmer has instigated a campaign to have Terry Redman resign from his position as Agriculture and Food Minister over what has been described as WA’s ”GM contamination debacle.” David Kibble has written a letter to his local Member for Parliament recommending he call for the resignation of Mr Redman, support legislation to protect both organic and conventional non-genetically modified farmers and call for a full audit of all GM farms and neighbouring properties. [...] Despite the appeal made by Mr Kibble and numerous industry people, a spokesperson for Mr Redman said the Minister had no comment to make about the campaign except to say he wouldn’t be resigning.

A BOYUP Brook farmer has instigated a campaign to have Terry Redman resign from his position as Agriculture and Food Minister over what has been described as WA’s ”GM contamination debacle.” David Kibble has written a letter to his local Member for Parliament recommending he call for the resignation of Mr Redman, support legislation to protect both organic and conventional non-genetically modified farmers and call for a full audit of all GM farms and neighbouring properties. [...] Despite the appeal made by Mr Kibble and numerous industry people, a spokesperson for Mr Redman said the Minister had no comment to make about the campaign except to say he wouldn’t be resigning.

Tropical Race Four appeared in Taiwan in the late eighties, and destroyed roughly seventy per cent of the island’s Cavendish plantations. In Indonesia, more than twelve thousand acres of export bananas were abandoned; in Malaysia, a local newspaper branded the disease ”the H.I.V. of banana plantations.” When the fungus reached China and the Philippines, the effect was equally ruinous. Australia was next. Scientists believe that Tropical Race Four, which has caused tens of millions of dollars’ worth of damage, will ultimately find its way to Central America-and to the fruit that Americans buy.

In a shocking development for the meat industry of Australia, the supermarket chain of Coles has announced that it will not be selling beef that has been prepared by the inclusion of growth hormones. The latest announcement could lead to beef prices soaring from the roof, as people keen to buy the hormone free beef will be making a beeline for Coles. It needs to be pointed out here that around 50% of the beef produced in Australia is developed by injecting cattle with hormone growth promotants.

EUROPEAN and Japanese grain buyers have threatened to cancel Australian contracts over fears of contaminated canola. Importers have warned Australia’s grain industry they will reject genetically modified grains. The CBH Group, a major Australian grain co-operative controlled by 4800 growers, yesterday declared that natural canola farmers had a major advantage in international markets, attracting a 5 per cent price premium over GM canola.

ORGANIC farmer Stephen Marsh has been handed an indefinite decertification by the National Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia. [...] If the Marsh family proceeded with a lawsuit, it would become the first case in Australia to decide who is responsible for the substantial cost when a non-GM crop is contaminated by a GM one. A potential lawsuit would also set Mr Marsh up against Monsanto, which owns the Roundup Ready GM technology and was reported to have said it would back the GM grower in a court case.