[The Australian 23 Dec 2010, p. 4 by Natatta Rita] -- MUTANT canola crops genetically engineered to survive repeated sprayings of herbicide were approved for planting yesterday, despite a furore over GM contamination of an organic farm. The West Australian Minister for Agriculture and Food, Terry Redman, has called on the organic industry to bend its rules to permit some GM material, declaring purity to be "unrealistic". WA grain farmer Steve Marsh was stripped of his organic certification this week after GM canola seeds allegedly blew 1.5km over his boundary from a neighbouring property at Kojonup, southeast of Perth. He is now setting an Australianprecedent by threatening to sue for damages.
Organic farmer Stephen Maish on his farm at Kojonup, about 300km southeast of Perth, which he says has been contaminated by GM canola seeds (Photo: Marie Nirme)
"The GM industry must control its technology," Mr Marsh said yesterday. "If a GM farmer wishes to grow it, that's his business, but he must be responsible that it doesn't impact on his neighbours."
Mr Marsh said he was considering legal action but was awaiting the results of a WA government investigation. A spokeswoman for Monsanto which sells the GM canola seeds as well as the Roundup herbicide used to spray it for weeds yesterday said the multinational corporation would support the GM farmer if the case ended in legal action. She said the GM farmer whose identity has not been revealed had complied with his obligation to keep a 5m buffer between his GM crop and the adjoining farm.
"The canola grower has met all his legal requirements," the Monsanto spokeswoman said. "We'd certainly be looking to support him in any way we could."
"Having a couple of canola plants blow into a farm should not be affecting its organic wheat status. Both farmers have done everything they should have."
The nation's leading organic certifier, the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia, yesterday confirmed its zero-tolerance approach to any contamination of crops with GM seeds. "We have suspended certification on the affected areas of Mr Marsh's farm pending further investigations as a result of contamination by GM Canola," a spokeswoman said. "This is the first case of this type of contamination for (us) ...the standards to which we operate do not permit any level of contamination."
Mr Redman wrote to Mr Marsh in October, urging him to persuade NASAA to be flexible. "The threshold for accidental presence in organic crops is an important issue which needs to be addressed to enable coexistence," the minister wrote in the letter, obtained by The Australian yesterday. "The European Union recently adopted a threshold of 0.9 per cent unintentional presence of approved GM material in organic products.
"This decision acknowledges that zero per cent thresholds are unrealistic in biological systems." The federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator yesterday approved a four-year trial of Monsanto's newest GM canola strain in NSW, Victoria and WA from next March.
