BY SAM RIXON
The July 25 decision by the federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) to allow the unconditional release of Australia's first genetically engineered food crop into the Australian environment has been condemned by environmental organisations. Sue Meeks, the Australian Gene Technology Regulator, ruled that GE canola is as safe for humans and the environment as non-GE canola.
Meek approved the release of InVigor hybrid canola, produced by the multinational food giant Bayer. The canola has been genetically modified to produce higher yields, higher oil content and to be more resistant to herbicides. Canola is used in cooking oil and margarine.
The OGTR is also evaluating a strain of GE canola developed by Monsanto.
Greenpeace campaigner Jeremy Tager said the decision to allow the commercial planting of GE canola "will change Australian agriculture forever. It flies in the face of community and farm industry sentiment. It ignores widespread health and environmental concerns."
Tager said that Meeks is allowing the release of a "novel and unpredictable genetic structure into the environment and food chain, without the most basic of tests or studies in place". "There is a total absence of peer-reviewed studies that ascertain the safety of GE canola for humans", Tager added.
"There are also no peer-reviewed studies on the impacts of GE canola on Australian ecosystems, no peer-reviewed studies of the impacts of GE canola on Australian insects, nor on Australian soils and soil organisms. The OGTR Risk Assessment simply assumes that GE canola is safe until proven otherwise. This assumption is the reverse of the precautionary principle on which such assessments should be based. It allows approval of GE canola without undertaking extensive and time intensive health and environmental testing and imposes a burden of proof on the community, that should be carried by the corporations."
"Using the OGTR's Risk Assessment standard for GE canola, tobacco would be deemed safe for human consumption and cane toads would be released into the Australian environment", Tager quipped.
"The federal government's OGTR ignores the fragile Australian environment and the urgent need to make Australian farming sustainable, to protect the environment and food security", GeneEthics director Bob Phelps said.
Tager said that given the complete failure of the regulatory system to protect public health or the environment, it is now up to individuals to take the matter into their own hands. "Whilst the OGTR may have given GE canola the rubber stamp, genetically engineered food will not be grown in Australia as long as the public continues to reject it", Tager predicted.
Due to public opposition, canola-growing states have imposed a moratorium on commercial GE food crops. However, trial crops are being grown in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, July 30, 2003.
Visit the