A new report from the Federal Government's Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group titled Creating Our Future: Agriculture and food policy for the next generation, calls State government to lift bans on genetically modified (GM) crops.
The reference group was chaired by National Farmers Federation (NFF) President Peter Corish.
He's been growing GM cotton for 10 years.
How do you grow GM cotton when there is a ban on GM crops?
Well, in NSW, cotton has been exempt from the GM bans on the basis it is grown primarily for fibre rather than food.
This ruling conveniently ignores the significant amount of vegetable oil that comes from GM cottonseed oil.
Another major source of vegetable oil is canola and as the new report states, Canadian farmers are selling GM canola into our traditional markets and, despite claim to the contrary, we are not getting a price premium for our GM-free product.
The report details the main GM crops grown around the world.
The United States is the largest producers with 47 million hectares of mostly GM, soybeans, maize, cotton and canola.
Interestingly, while Europe is perceived to be GM-free, according to the report, Spain grows about 60,000 hectares of GM maize and Romania grows GM soybeans.
The report also claims that shunning the technology could cost Australian producers up to $5.8 billion in gross national product forgone over the next ten years.
The bottom-line is that the bans reduce our international competitiveness.
I am concerned that the bans also prevent Australian farmers from growing more environmentally friendly varieties.
For example, GM cotton has enabled farmers to reduced overall insecticide use by 70 per cent and the use of endosulfan, one of the more persistent insecticides, by around 90 pc.
I am surprised it has taken the Federal Government and NFF so long to publicly call for a lifting of the various State government bans.
But it has happened, at last, and the call is backed up with a really comprehensive report.
Well done Peter Corish.
This is yet another blow for the anti-GM campaigners.
Just two weeks ago the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issued a preliminary report indicating that the European Union (EU) moratorium on GM food crops breaches WTO trade rules.
Greenpeace has spearheaded the campaign to ban GM agriculture.
When is Greenpeace going to find something more useful to campaign on?
Perhaps this multinational corporation could call for ban on organic crops?
After all, organic farmers, on average, need to cultivate a lot more land to harvest the same quantity of food and fibre and, furthermore, they are so often a terrific source of weed seed.
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