MAJOR canola purchasers CBH and Elders will not be buying GM canola this season, in a nod to the market sensibilities of major customers in Europe and Japan. Europe has only just relaxed moratoria on buying GM canola seed and is unlikely to buy any GM this season due to a big harvest, while Japan prefers non-GM from Australia, even though most of its imports come from Canada, the largest GM canola producing nation in the world.

The world is not getting any bigger, so the question is, how are we going to feed all of these people?

Genetic Modification has been touted as one of the solutions to the problem. The Agriculture Minister, Terry Redman, says [...] ”It’s not a silver bullet, it’s not something that everyone’s going to grow, it’s not something that they’re going to put their whole farm into, but it’s another tool to put in the toolbox that farmers can use to address the challenges they face in Western Australia,”

The Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald agrees with Monsanto. He says under European Union standards farmers are allowed to have a small percentage of GM grain in their crop: ”I think there’s a lot of exaggeration here. I don’t believe that it’s springing up everywhere on a volunteer basis. And remember even if it does occur on a volunteer basis, the studies show that it doesn’t persist and can be easily treated.”

GRAINCORP is preparing its sites for the second season of GM canola deliveries – with segregations for ’canola’ and ’non-GM canola’ available. And non-GM producers looking to market their product specifically as GM-free will be pleased to know that moves towards a fee for testing to prove canola was GM-free have been abandoned. ”We have managed to negotiate with crushers and get an outcome that is good for growers, with no fees incurred for testing on the canola’s GM status,” said GrainCorp’s corporate affairs manager David Ginns.

A group of concerned farmers in country New South Wales claims to have found genetically modified canola plants growing on the side of the road, just metres from their non-GM fields. It has been more than 18 months since the genetically modified crops were allowed to be cultivated in NSW and tensions about contamination are mounting. Thousands of tonnes of GM canola is being transported throughout southern farming country. The farmers who want to remain GM free are worried their international reputation is being ruined because the GM canola seeds could easily blow into their crops.

MONSANTO has dismissed reports of genetically modified canola contamination along the Riverina Highway near Berrigan. Monsanto spokeswoman Honi McNaughton said a few plants found outside a paddock ”did not equate to ”rogue weeds or contamination” but was a normal, agriculture occurrence. This followed claims by Berrigan farmer Gai Marshall that GM canola weeds were found on the highway near her farm.

COUNCIL Chambers overflowed with more than 100 people last Thursday night to hear the council agree it did not support the use of genetically modified crops in the shire. The council opted to a modified approach to a motion originally put up by Councillor Lyn Serventy. Theywill send copies of a petitions signed by almost 1500 shire residents, and another signed by seven local doctors, to Agriculture Minister Terry Redman along with an expression of the strong local concerns.

Recently, boatloads of soya meal from the US were rejected by German authorities due to traces of a GM maize protein. Spanish authorities have also blocked shipments. The problem is not the GM soya but the maize which is still awaiting EU approval. The contamination is understood to have come from dust within the portside stores and handling systems, making it virtually impossible to prevent.

The Augusta Margaret River Shire Council has voted unanimously to keep genetically modified (GM) crops out of the region. At a meeting last night, councillors heard from local farmers and anti-GM campaigners before casting their vote. Shire President Steve Harrison says the community’s concern about the affect of GM crops on the shire’s farming reputation will be passed on to State Parliament.

ONE of the country’s most respected wine makers is taking a stand against genetic modification (GM). Augusta Margaret River Shire councillors will vote on whether or not to allow GM crops to be grown in the district on Thursday evening. Vanya Cullen, of Cullen Wines, has recently returned from Britain, where she says Australia is losing its clean green edge, making it more difficult to sell wine in an increasingly discerning market. The UK is Australia’s largest wine export market.