Anti-GMO campaigners call for planting freeze

Issue 

Anti-GMO campaigners call for planting freeze

"Australian growers are being urged not to miss the GMO [genetically modified organisms] boat, but would be wise to make sure they are not boarding the Titanic", Australian GeneEthics Network spokesperson Bob Phelps said on March 18.

The GeneEthics Network has called for a five-year freeze on the planting of all genetically engineered crops, including canola, and the immediate removal of all existing GMO plots in Australia. The call follows revelations earlier this month that the federal government's Office of the Gene Technology regulator (OGTR) has allowed chemical giants Aventis and Monsanto to plant herbicide-tolerant GMO canola at 200 sites on more than 2000 hectares throughout Australia's canola-growing areas.

Recent British research shows that canola pollen spreads at least five kilometres, but the OGTR requires only a 400-metre buffer around plots of GMO crop plants. In a letter to the GeneEthics Network dated September 17, the OGTR even admitted: "The isolation requirements that apply to field trials are designed to minimise rather than prevent dissemination of the GMO or its genetic material".

The OGTR and the corporations involved have refused to give exact locations for the engineered canola being grown, probably fearing the response of nearby growers and/or of anti-GMO campaigners, who have successfully taken direct action against such crops in Europe.

For more information, contact the GeneEthics Network at PO Box 2424, Fitzroy MC 3065, phone (03) 9416 2222, e-mail <genethics@acfonline.org.au>, or visit the web site at <http://www.zero.com.au/agen>.

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