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Greenpeace activists unfurl a banner on Melbourne’s iconic Flinders Street railway station, sending a strong message to Premier Brumby on his controversial decision to lift the ban on genetically engineered (GE) food crops.

Victoria’s ban on genetically engineered (GE) food crops expires on 29 February.  Says Greenpeace genetic engineering campaigner, Rebecca Hubbard, “Victoria is running out of time before it loses its GE free status.  More…  Video Report (The Age)

GreenPeace News Articles:

• GE Canola – out of control in Canada
• Australia’s food at risk
• New research shows GE science is flawed
• More…

GM crops can contaminate adjacent non-GM crops by various means. The canola seed is tiny and easily spread through wind, animals, birds, seed transport spills etc.

Even before GM Canola crops are allowed in Australia, contamination is being found in Australian grain from  research being done by the Tasmanian Government…

• GM: A case of good crop bad crop - March 2006, Sydney Morning Herald 

But what about contamination through cross-pollination? Here genes traits are transferred from one crop to another.  Which crops are sexually compatible with the current GM crops? Do we know?

Currently we are seeing new herbicide resistant super-weeds growing up around the GM-crops. These weeds have taken on the herbicide resistance traits given to the GM crops.

• Cross-Pollination Leads to Triple Herbicide Resistance

Could this spoil the integrity of our existing pure crops? If Western Australia get their way and grow GM wheat, will it cross-pollinate with Spelt? (Spelt is a distant cousin of Wheat and now in common usage by health bread manufacturers). If weeds can take on the traits of GM crops then who really knows what we can expect.

We are genetic altering life, and life is self replicating. Once released into the world, you may not be able to reverse that decision.  Like Cane Toads introduced into QLD Australia you could be stuck with them for ever.

The 2004 documentary “Unnatural Selection“ tells a story of a GE salmon farm (commercial research). A flood caused 100, 000 GE fish to escaped into the river ways. Some scientists estimated these larger more aggressive Salmon could in fact cause the natural fish population to die out within just a few years. This is of course worst case scenario, but it just shows again that we playing with fire. But hey as long as someone is making a profit 

EU Regulations permit very low levels of accidental or ‘adventitious’ presence of GM plants in an organic crop at a threshold of 0.9% (lowered recently from 1%).

Bio-Diversity 

The other problem we have is one of bio-diversity. I’m just starting to understand what this means.

So we have Monsato and others buying up all the seed companies around the world. Their aim is to control the worlds food supply. The natural diversity in the world, that comes from farmers collecting their own seed generation after generation will be lost as Monsanto moves in with their limited palette of GM seeds. 

In the space of only a decade we now have most of USA and Canada growing GM food crops from a very limit variety of seed. Some say we have already lost some varieties of seed.  Thank God for projects like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.

Currently there is an oversupply of food for the planet (we just neglect to share it with those who are hungry).  So don’t beleive the Monsanto spin that says we have a moral obligation to go GM.

Worst case scenario … if the traits in these untested GM genes fail catastrophically, we could have a world wide famine.

GreenPeace run a program called Trolley Watch. When you see a Genetically Modified (GE) food label in your supermarket, take a photo and upload it to GreenPeace. So it’s a shame file. Yet another way to use consumers power. Currently we only have a dozen or so products labelled in Australia. Loop holes in Australian labelling laws allow potentially 1000′s of GE products in Australian stores.

• GE Fake Foods Photo File
  Next to each product is a link so you can send an email to the company.

 What else can you do?

• Call or email your Australian state premier
• Call or email Australian Companies selling GE foods

Holly Schiach, Greenpeace, talks to Sydney audience about Trolley Watch in Australia.

• YourTube Video: Tolley Watch

Holly tells how Lowans Healthfoods finally gave in to removing GE food from their Lowans and Greens lines, after they received many letters from consumers.

Nice snappy video on the dangers of GM food.

Are GM food crops allowed in Australia? 

Currently no. However on the 27th Nov, the Victorian and NSW governments announced that their bans on growing GM Canola would lapse on February 29 and March 3 2008, respectively. Premier Brumby will let Bayer, Monsanto and their agribusiness allies roll out herbicide tolerant GM canola in Victoria without restriction or public notice. In contrast, NSW has extended its ban till July 2011 but will exempt some GM canola growing for commercial and research purposes, on a case-by-case basis.

According to GeneEthics.org, Bayer, Monsanto and the US government formed an agribusiness coalition to overturn the bans.

Why are we going GM in Australia?

With so many scientists and experts voicing clear concerns against GMO, why are our politicians letting GM Canola crops into Australia?

Australia’s new Chief Scientist and longest-serving chief of the CSIRO Plant Industry division, is Dr Jim (William James) Peacock. While he’s been smearing critics of genetically modified (GM) food as “unprincipled minorities” and “self-serving” activists, he forgot to mention a few things about himself.

1. Companies started by Peacock may benefit from overturning state bans on GM.
2. The GM crop patents Peacock has lodged.

This detective work came from Kath Wilsons blog. Thanks Kath!
I recommend you read Kath Wilsons blog.

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The GM Spin

Big business push a myth that GMO is on the moral high ground. GM food, a God given technology that can feed the starving nations of the world, raise your profits, and reduce your pesticide usage. Their advertising spin appeals to your emotions, to your deep moral compass which wants to help the poor &  needy of the world. We buy it hook line and sinker.

The Monsanto home page gives the impression of a responsible, caring, green company.  Numerous videos show farmers from all over the world painting a rosy picture of prosperity and happiness through GM crops. However, scratch the surface and you find that Monsanto, are not the good citizen they claim to be; GM food crops don’t out perform conventional crops; GM food has no proper safety testing; GMO’s have the potential to poison and pollute the planet’s food and animal DNA permanently; And no one, certainly not the poor and needy, have benefited from GM foods so far.

Read the 2007 report from Friends of the Earth:

• The executive summary of the report is available at
  http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/gmcrops2007execsummary.pdf
  The full report is available for media upon request from the contacts above or from media@foei.org

Highlights from the report from the Australian NCF site – GM Crops still not performing

• “No GM crop on the market today offers benefits to the consumer in terms of quality or price, and to date these crops have done nothing to alleviate hunger or poverty in Africa or elsewhere,” said Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth Africa in Nigeria.
   
• Brussels, 8 January 2007 – A new report to be released tomorrow shows that genetically modified (GM) crops have failed to address the main challenges facing farmers in most countries of the world, and more than 70% of large scale GM planting is still limited to two countries (U.S. and Argentina).
   
• In 2006 the US Department of Agriculture, a chief proponent of GM crops, for the first time acknowledged that GM crop yields are not greater than those of conventional crops, and a compelling number of studies by independent scientists demonstrate that GM crop yields are lower than, or at best equivalent to, yields from non-GM varieties.

Monsanto: A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing

Monsanto told us DTD was safe; Agent Orange was safe; Aspartame (NutraSweet) was safe; BST (bovine growth hormone) was safe; Yet all these products cause sickness. Monsanto BST is still on the market Have a look at this Youtube video Fox News Kills Monsanto Milk Story.  They are known as a global bully, making friends in high places who help them push their shonky products out to market with little or no safety testing. Reports of falsifying records and data, people fired or demoted for speaking out, it will all make for a great Hollywood blockbuster one day.

Thanks to the flat trading field setup by globalization, Monsanto now control most of the worlds seed supply. Using biotech, Monsanto can alter the seed DNA, which means they can now patent and own the seed, and lock GM seed to their herbicide products. This great new money spinner for Monsanto is causing problems everywhere. Today, mostly thanks to the Internet, this trail of destruction is more visible.

Web sites exposing Monsanto’s bad deeds are too numerous to mention. Just search Google for the name “Monsanto” and you will find plenty of good reading material. However despite the adverse publicity Monsanto stock keeps going up and up, and governments and farmers are still buying into the whole GM food is the savior of the world spin.

Spot the Spin

Hans Lombard, a public relations consultant for the biotech industry states that “GMO FOOD IS SAFER THAN CONVENTIONAL”. I think we can safely call that “spin” — Read more

Some straight talk…

A Book to Change Your Mind

The above quotes come from a book written by author Jeffrey M. Smith called Seeds of Deception “Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating”.

You can see Jeffrey Smith speaking at a conference in Florida in a 6 part video up on the Google YouTube web site.

Like the book this video will forever change the way you think about GM foods.

Video part #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 

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NCF (Network of Concerned Farmers) are the voice of reason in the GM foods debate here in Australia. I highly recommend you take time to read through their very informative web site. Thanks to Julie Newman, who volunteers her time in maintaining this great site.  

• http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/

Below is the first section of the NCF report on the economics of growing GM canola in Australia , Nov 2007 (to view the actual official report please go to the NCF web site and search for “GM canola report”).

GM canola will cause economic loss to canola farmers of over $143 million

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President: I was born to Lead not Read – [The Simpsons Movie 2007]

Introduction

Tues 27 Nov 2007 – Victorian and NSW governments (in Australia) have lifted the ban on growing commercial GM canola. The community are split over the news with some seeing it as an economic step forward, while others are deeply concerned over the potential risks to health and the environment.

Government and industry will label you a Luddite if you say you’re against GM foods. Actually most aren’t against GM, their against rushing into this too early, before knowing all the facts and risks.

Some issues that concern me…

1. Government heavies are making wild claims that GM food is safe despite the complete lack of any long term safety testing. Some of these guys act like pushy union men. When you question them, they respond by throwing insults, inferring that you’re a Luddite or stupid. Hey bullying wont go down well with Australians. Many countries report a 50% increase in allergies since GM foods were introduced.  When GM Soy beans was first introduced into the UK, soy allergies sky rocketed by 50%. Is there there a connection? We don’t know, because governments wont do the long term safety testing. They just want to quickly push it out there.
2. Introducing GM Canola will most likely result in the destruction, through contamination, of our existing non-GM and organic canola markets. There is also plenty of evidence showing that other crops are also likely to become contaminated.
   Canadian researchers tested 33 samples of certified non-GM canola seed and found that 32 samples were contaminated with GM varieties. The seeds are very small and easily blown into neighbouring properties or further.
3. We are told that 70% of world’s canola trade is now GM and we must have a slice of it. However the government neglect to mention that Canada is the only major GM producer in the world,  and their market has declined sharply since GM canola was introduced. So much so that now the Canadian government heavily subsidise the Canadian canola industry.
   According to the Canadian National Farmers Union: “GM crops do not deliver the promised benefits; they create numerous problems, costs, and risks; and Canadian consumers and foreign customers alike do not want these crops. It would be too generous even to call GM crops a solution in search of a problem: These crops have failed to provide significant solutions, and their use is creating problems— agronomic, environmental, economic, social, and (potentially) human health problems”
4. Europe and Japan don’t want GM. Currently 40% of our OZ canola goes to Japan who have stated clearly that their 3 million consumers do not want GM canola. 

So why are the Government so hell bent on rushing us into GM before its found to be safe? One can only conclude that money talks louder than words, and the Government’s chief advisers are influenced by the huge multinational organisations such as Monsanto who have their own agenda.

Its quite a strange situation. We have all these people in government passionately and blindly pushing GM foods as the magic bullet. While at the other extreme most scientists are advocating that we wait, do long term testing, and learn more before continuing. The politicians appear to be totally seduced by the GM hype and the promise of big money. Consumers are sick of our leaders chasing short term economic gain, while ignoring long term repucutions. We want to protect and heal our environment while building a future for our children.

I hope that this series of notes will help you discern between spin and reality.

Rob