Arguments drying up for GE crops in Australia

The good news on drought resistant crops is that Australian scientists have already produced them using conventional breeding techniques. So there is no need to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers' money trying to create genetically engineered (GE) versions. For example, a non-GE drought resistant canola variety developed in Victoria will be available to farmers this year. Despite the industry spin, GE technology is being rapidly replaced by other technologies that don't pose the same environmental and human health risks.

Biotechs suppress risky products

Concerns about the safety of eating GE food were validated last month when, for the first time, a peer reviewed study found that an approved GE corn variety available on supermarket shelves caused toxic effects in rats. Monsanto tried to suppress the original data on which the study was based. Greenpeace obtained the data through a court case and passed it on to independent scientists for evaluation.

This is not the first time biotech companies have tried to suppress important information to keep their risky products on the market. Bayer kept its anti-cholesterol drug, Baycol, on the market for four years after it became aware of the dangers associated with it. The drug has been associated with approximately 100 deaths and 1600 injuries worldwide from side-effects, including severe muscle wasting and kidney damage. And Monsanto still argues that Agent Orange is safe, despite the chemical's association with massively high levels of birth defects and health problems.

GE critic sacked by government

What is new, in the case of GE crops, is the role the Australian government is playing in trying to foist these unpredictable and unwanted products on us. The federal government has invested millions of dollars in GE crops through CSIRO, and an agenda to provide a path to market for GE crops. And if anyone dares to get in the way of the government's agenda it comes down hard. Last month, one of Australia's top organic farming experts, CSIRO scientist Dr Maarten Stapper, was sacked for criticising GE crops.

Ironically, Dr Stapper's field of research - looking at organic farming methods as a means to reduce carbon loss in soils and restore soil fertility - is exactly the sort of research that we need if we are to adapt our agricultural systems to cope with the unpredictable impacts of climate change.

Food for thought in drought

Consider the farmers who are doing well despite Australia's drought. They are:

• farmers who practise mixed cropping rather than the vast fields of monoculture that GE crops encourage
• farmers who work with nature, rather than against it - building up and improving their soils so that they hold more moisture, rather than continuously eroding them.

With Dr Stapper's departure, CSIRO will end its research on organic farming. Instead CSIRO and other government agencies will focus their efforts on rolling back the state moratoria on GE food crops next year. They aim to bring to market an unnecessary, unpredictable technology that opinion polls consistently show Australian consumers don't want.

With the government in league with multinational agribusiness, it is unfortunately left to us, as individual consumers, to protect our food and environment from the risks of GE crops by rejecting genetically engineered food - as consumers have effectively done in Europe.

Louise Sales is community organiser for the Greenpeace genetic engineering campaign