A plant breeding technician is accusing his former employer (the Department of Agriculture and Food WA) of getting too close to big multi-national chemical companies. He thinks this conflict of interest has resulted in ’shonky’ genetically-modified canola trials being conducted in WA last year. For more than 10 years Patrick Fels worked on the department’s canola breeding programs, but in November last year he was sacked.

Public attitudes to genetically modified (GM) agriculture in Australia are not changing, with the majority of Australians still uncomfortable with GM foods. An article published in the latest edition of People and Place reports findings about attitudes to GM foods from Swinburne University’s National Science and Technology Monitor (SNSTM). According to this data, public attitudes in Australia to GM foods have remained constant since 2003.

Australian researchers for the first time created artificially produced honey bee silk using genetically modified bacteria. Australian entomologist Tara D. Sutherland [...] says, ”The silks would be good for tough, lightweight textiles, and high-strength applications like advanced aviation and marine composites”.

LOCAL anti-GM food campaigners have voiced their outrage over Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman’s decision last Monday on GM canola. [...] Local Ian Parmenter called it ”absolutely outrageous”. ”It ignores all the warnings and a lot of good science,” he said.

A NEW form of glyphosate resistance has prompted a warning that the herbicide has ”become as important for reliable global food production as penicillin is for battling disease”.

A vigorous weed of cotton fields in the south-east United States, Palmer amaranth, has been found capable of resisting the effects of glyphosate through ”gene amplification”, the third type of resistance mechanism now discovered, and one that has rung alarm bells with researchers.

Biotechnology company Monsanto is urging South Australian grain growers to think about whether they want to be one of only two states to ban genetically modified (GM) canola. Monsanto, among pro-GM groups, has already started ramping up the pressure against the SA government following a decision by the Barnett government in Western Australia to overturn a state ban on GM canola.

Critics of the decision included Shadow Agriculture Minister Mick Murray, who said this will have negative long term economic and social impacts that cannot be reversed. He noted ”overwhelming opposition” to the proposal, and called the decision an irreversible blunder. [...] Mr Murray said almost 90 per cent of submissions made to a review of the Genetically Modified Crops Free Areas Act 2003 opposed the introduction of GM crops.

Western Australia has become the third Australian state to allow farmers to grow genetically modified (GM) canola. Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman on Monday approved an exemption order under the Genetically Modified Crops Free Areas Act 2003 to permit cultivation of the GM crop. Premier Colin Barnett said the step fulfilled a key election promise to approve commercial-size trials of GM canola and brought WA into line with the other major grain-growing states, NSW and Victoria.

THE results of a controversial animal feeding study on genetically modified crops are expected to be made public by the middle of next year.

The $92,000 study was commissioned by the previous State Government in 2005 and funded in 2007. [...] Dr Carman said the main delay to the research came from the difficulty with getting hold of GM material to test. ”GM companies usually forbid independent research on GM seeds purchased from them and prohibit farmers from giving GM seeds to researchers, which delayed our research for years,” she said.

BULK handler GrainCorp has rejected calls to trace the contamination of two grain silos with genetically modified canola back to grain growers. The Victorian Farmers Federation has called for the investigation of Round-Up Ready canola in 500-tonne grade samples at Dunolly and Lillimur.