‘Back in the spring of 2001, a 64-year-old Texas rice farmer named Jacko Garrett watched a fleet of 18-wheelers haul away truckloads of rice that he had grown with great care. "It just bothers me so bad," Garrett said. "I'm sitting here trying to find food to feed people, and I've got to bury five million pounds of rice." No one likes to waste food, but for Garrett, who runs a charity that collects rice for the needy, the pain was especially acute.

Garrett's rice was genetically modified, part of an experiment that was brought to an abrupt halt by its sponsor, a North Carolina-based biotechnology company called Aventis Crop Science. The company had contracted with a handful of farmers to grow the rice, which was known as Liberty Link because its genes had been altered to resist a weed killer called Liberty, also made by Aventis.

But by 2001, Aventis Crop Science was living a biotech nightmare. Another one of its creations, a variety of genetically modified corn known as StarLink, had been discovered in taco shells made by Kraft. Because the StarLink corn had been approved as animal feed - and not for human consumption - all hell broke loose.’

Attack Of The Mutant Rice

‘Australian farmers should be allowed to plant genetically modified crops as soon as possible so they can compete with the rest of the world, according to a confidential Federal Government report.

But the findings have dismayed experts and environmentalists who say GM foods — dubbed Frankenfoods by the media — could be detrimental to human health and to the environment.

Greenpeace Australia spokeswoman Louise Sales said she was alarmed.

"They (GM crops) lead to the creation of even stronger weeds, which require even stronger pesticides," she said.

Ms Sales accused the Government of being under pressure from the United States to allow GM crops. "Huge US multinationals are putting huge amounts of pressure on Australia to let their products in the door so that they make a profit, but this could destroy our reputation as being among the cleanest farmers in the world," Ms Sales said.’

Green Light For GM Farming

Field of genes: report urges farming of 'smart' crops

Jason Koutsoukis
August 12, 2007

GENETICALLY modified food poses no danger to human health or the environment and should be given the green light, a confidential Federal Government study has found.

The Department of Agriculture report, titled GM Canola: An Information Package, marked "confidential" and dated July 2007, has tackled fears surrounding "smart" crops, recommending they be planted as soon as possible to help farmers compete with the rest of the world.

It has the strong backing of federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran, who is leading the charge to have GM crops widely introduced across Australia. The planting of GM crops is banned in all states except Queensland.

The ban is due to expire in Victoria and NSW early next year, but is under review. With the strong backing of farm groups and the CSIRO, both Victoria and NSW are widely expected to lift the ban. The state government bans relate specifically to canola, which is the only crop not to have received approval for planting by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.

Lifting the ban on GM canola is considered the first step to bringing other crop biotechnologies to the market, such as drought-resistant wheat, new varieties of sugar and nutrition-enhanced fruit and vegetables.

"GM canola offers some solutions to the current problems conventional canola faces in Australia and is likely to make an important contribution to farming systems," the report states.

But environment and public health groups expressed concern at the prospect of GM crops being allowed in Australia, saying the health and environmental risks were not yet understood. Institute of Health and Environmental Research director Judy Carman, an epidemiologist and senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide, said studies had shown that rats fed a diet of GM canola had recorded increases in their liver weights of about 16per cent.
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Gus: If climate change is one of the curse of the modern world upon itself, GM crops will be the supercurse of humanity upon the entire world. We desperately need to stop this insanity (insanity looks sane until something goes wrong — like someone shooting people at a school fete) immediately. It's time our governments protect the value of "organically" grown produce and help markets develop... In most cases, the value of things exist in the way it is hyped, but in the case of "organic food", the promotion is very easy... and the more foodstuff is cultivated in this manner the lower the price for consumer. Eventually all would benefit: consumers, producers AND THE ENVIRONMENT. With GM crops say goodbye to Nature, the natural way... and welcome more serious problems — massive problems in the future... GM technology is a deliberate genocide of the natural environment...

"I think GM [genetically modified] development is critical," he said.

"Production can't keep up with demand, it's critical we embrace that as Australians.

"We're only stopping our farmers to income that I believe they're entitled to."

ABB Grain, Australia's largest exporter of barley, will pay shareholders a final dividend of five cents a share at the end of next month.

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Gus: repeat of my comment above:

If climate change is one of the curse of the modern world upon itself, GM crops will be the supercurse of humanity upon the entire world. We desperately need to stop this insanity (insanity looks sane until something goes wrong — like someone shooting people at a school fete) immediately. It's time our governments protect the value of "organically" grown produce and help markets develop... In most cases, the value of things exist in the way it is hyped, but in the case of "organic food", the promotion is very easy... and the more foodstuff is cultivated in this manner the lower the price for consumer. Eventually all would benefit: consumers, producers AND THE ENVIRONMENT. With GM crops say goodbye to Nature, the natural way... and welcome more serious problems — massive problems in the future... GM technology is a deliberate genocide of the natural environment...

Green light for GM crops

Brian Robins
November 27, 2007

The State Government has given the green light to using genetically modified crops for the first time, overturning a ban that has been in place for several years.

The decision to allow genetically modified crops is being taken in tandem with Victoria.

Approval has been given for the use of genetically modified canola crops, which NSW Minister for Agriculture Ian Macdonald said would put local farmers on a level playing field with farmers overseas.

As much as 70 per cent of the global trade in canola is in genetically modified crops, the Government said.

NSW farmers had been missing out on export opportunities to countries such as Canada and the United States as a result of the failure to adopt genetically modified canola.

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Gus: actually I do not "consume" canola product . I try to avoid it... I have had friends cooking in "canola" oil but I have rejected it and never buy it. For me, canola oil is tasteless, greasy rather than oily and it impregnates food with "bland" blehww. It does not make food "sing" as food should with flavours. And I guessed that canola would be one of the first GM crops to be given the "green" light (no real "green" in that) after cotton. Already cotton seed oil from GM crops is being used in many greasy food outlets... But then has GM cotton got an approval? I don't think so for food product... It has approval for making "cotton" fiber though, if my memory serves me right... But then there is by-product... etc.

Slowly but surely the "patent owners" of seeds, attached to patented powerful insecticides and herbicides, are gaining ground. They have clout, money, "science" (with limited testing of short and long term effects) and ruthlessness on their side... Nature only has hippies and greens, in her bosom... no money in that...

Today the beet growers in the USA are going near 100 per cent GM modified beet because they can use much stronger "roundup", the herbicide... Of course, the whole lot is a fantastic marketing (what am I saying: a ginormous gold making machine!) ploy by Monsanto to sell roundup AND the GM modified seeds of plants that can resist the poison. The soil slowly dies except for those GM seeds (GM seeds are like nerds being on steroids) and become saturated with poison. The earth becomes a "poisoned surface" where only the patented crops survive... Slowly, adjacent "pure" lands become contaminated, etc and become in "need" of "roundup" or bear less and less as the non GM crops become affected with accidental over-spray or airborne particles of "roundup"...... We all know how it's done — like with the cane toad umpteen years ago (except there is no money in cane toads), but we do it again... and again... and again... Now we do destroy nature for indecent greed...

Get rid of GM crops...

from Crikey ….. 

CSIRO scientist asks chefs to leave GM foods alone 

Katherine Wilson writes: 

A letter campaign to Australia's top chefs -- including Kylie Kwong, Maggie Beer, Stephanie Alexander, Stefano de Pieri and Margaret Fulton -- has again raised questions about the CSIRO's alliances with industry.  

In copies of a letter forwarded to Crikey, Deputy Chief of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Plant Industry, TJ Higgins, has written to more than 50 chefs who signed Greenpeace’s GM-free Chefs Charter, asking them not to boycott Genetically Modified products.  

Higgins, whose claims about the safety of GM foods have attracted criticism from some scientists and support from others, is CSIRO’s co-inventor of the GM field pea. The pea, spliced with a bean gene, cost more than $2 million to develop but was abandoned because it caused immune issues and lung-damage when fed to mice.  

Despite this, Higgins' letter urges chefs to "think more broadly about the implications of your opposition". Higgins says "it is untrue to say that GM food has not been tested for human safety." It has, he notes, "and very widely" -- independent studies have found no "connection between health problems and GM food".  

But Greenpeace spokesperson Louise Sales told Crikey that Higgins' claims have been refuted by peer-reviewed studies and that "Higgins has clearly, and not for the first time, crossed the line between being a scientist and biotechnology industry lobbyist." 

Claims of safety are also challenged by public health scientists, including Australian epidemiologist Judy Carman and nutritionist and biochemist Rosemary Stanton, who say there is mounting evidence to suggest some GM foods currently on the market are unsafe, and these have not undergone the rigour of testing that found health hazards in Higgins' ill-fated GM pea. While Australian food regulation bodies don't require such testing, in Europe and Japan, many GM foods are banned because of perceived inadequate testing. 

CSIRO’s public comments policy forbids advocacy and calls for "care… when speaking about work with commercial potential."  

CSIRO Plant Industry has commercial partners and holds several GM product patents that depend on market acceptance of GM food. Many of these products are co-invented by Australia's Chief Scientist Jim Peacock, who has lobbied to overturn GM bans. 

CSIRO policy also states: "where diversity of scientific views exists make reference to the range of scientific perspectives held within CSIRO." In the case of GM food, a senior scientist who spoke publicly about hazards of GM crops was sacked from the organisation.  

CSIRO was contacted for a response to the latest claims, which follow a spate of accusations besieging CSIRO, including accusations of gagging scientists who express opinions on climate change policy, and a Canberra Times exposé of CSIRO’s coal industry influence on boosting fossil fuel research and reducing renewable energy research.  

Scientists in Nature and within the CSIRO have also attacked some claims in the bestselling CSIRO Wellbeing Diet, which was funded by meat and dairy industry bodies. 

CSIRO Communications Spokesperson Sophie Clayton said Higgins would like to respond to the latest claims but could not in time for this story. CSIRO's position statement on gene technology is here.