In an interesting post-election development, within a few days of Kevin Rudd's Labor Party storming home to win the federal election with a lot of support from the green lobby, the Victorian and NSW Labor governments revealed they were lifting their bans on growing genetically modified (GM) food crops.
This is great news for farmers.
Australian agriculture has always depended on innovation to stay internationally competitive and lifting the bans means farmers can choose between GM and non-GM canola.
Like most Canadian canola producers, Australian grain growers are likely to choose the former because it will allow for more efficient weed control.
The lifting of the moratoria also sends the right message to those researching other GM varieties including wheat, sorghum and sugarcane, who are now likely to be able to commercialize their new products.
It is extraordinary that a proven technology could have been denied Australian farmers in the first place.
GM soybean, corn and canola have been grown overseas for many years in the US, India, South Africa, Canada and Argentina.
GM cotton, grown in Australia since 1996, was given exemptions from the bans in NSW on the basis it is grown primary for fibre -- never mind that the cottonseed is made into vegetable oil.
There was no real opposition from the Australian scientific community to GM -- it was almost 100 percent behind the new technology.
The bans were really a consequence of clever campaigning by Greenpeace and the subsequent establishment of the Network of Concerned Farmers.
The NSW Farmers Association supported the parliamentary process that resulted in the bans but it seems many of the association's members let fear mongering sway them.
Without an articulate voice for reason, some concerned graingrowers were subsequently prompted to team up and form a new national grassroots group, The Producers Forum.
Led by Jeff Bidstrup, a quietly spoken farmer from southern Queensland, the group worked very hard to counter much of the misinformation.
I believe Australian agriculture owes The Producers Forum a big thank you. Without the group's low key but intelligent, honest and persistent approach, the moratorium would probably still be in place.
We live during a period when public relations specialists claim they can create reality out of perceptions, which may well be the case when it comes to marketing. But on the farm it doesn't matter how much you wish for a good yield -- if you don't plant the right crop you won't have one.
Organisations like Greenpeace aren't into the business of production; they are into marketing and they seem to now specialise more in scaring the hell (and money) out of people, than saving planet earth.
Not that much will change.
Just beware the next anti-technology, anti-industry campaigner full of green-wash!
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