Help keep GE out of our food

(from a friend)

Australia – Victoria’s agriculture minister wants to lift his state’s ban on growing genetically engineered canola. The ban protects all Australian consumers and farmers from risky GE contamination.

As many farmers struggle with the drought, another threat looms. The Australian government is seeking to lift bans on the commercial growing of genetically engineered (GE) food crops. And our farmers stand to lose their lucrative GE-free status on the world market.

Lifting the ban would spell disaster for farmers and consumers. Canola is used in many of the foods we eat every day. Just like cane toads, once this hazard is introduced it can never be recalled.

4 reasons to keep the ban on GE canola

1) No ban means no choice. GE contamination of natural crops is unavoidable, as the introduction of GE canola in Canada has shown. If GE canola were introduced in Australia farmers and consumers would no longer have the choice to grow and consume GE-free food.

2) GE canola costs too much By the time farmers pay for GE seeds, inputs, user agreements, segregation and identity preservation, they need a yield gain of 9-19% for GE canola to break even with normal canola. However, a review by the Australian Productivity Commission concluded that Canadian GE canola varieties have only shown a 1% increase in yield – which is likely to be quickly eroded by weed resistance problems.

3) GE is not as good Monsanto and Bayer refuse to enter their GE canola into Australian seed listing trials because they know very well that it won’t compare favourably to Australian canola. Our natural canola has been selectively bred for many years to suit local conditions.

4) GE crops aren’t drought resistant There are no commercially available drought resistant GE crops. But scientists in Victoria have developed a non-GE, drought resistant canola variety which will be available to farmers in 2007.

Despite this, the federal government is pressuring the states to lift their GE food crop bans. Victorian Agriculture Minister Joe Helper has said he wants Victoria’s ban lifted when it comes up for review next February.

“If these GE canola bans fall, and the biotech industry gets pro-GE farmers to plant their herbicide resistant varieties of canola, Australia’s entire canola crop will become contaminated – just as Canada’s is now,” says Greenpeace GE campaigner, Louise Sales.

The GE canola varieties would include Monsanto’s GT73 Roundup Ready canola, banned for human consumption in Austria. Monsanto’s own studies revealed increased liver weights in rats fed the canola. The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has also raised safety concerns about eating the canola. And there is growing scientific evidence that GE food crops, like herbicide-resistant GE canola, damage ecosystems.

Consumers worldwide don’t want to eat GE food and that makes our GE-free crops very appealing to the rest of the world.

Says Louise Sales, “Our canola is currently selling for $111 a tonne more than Canadian canola, largely due to its GE-free status.”

If you don’t want GE canola in your margarine, cooking oil, dips, sauces, and many more foods, take action.

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