SA Stands Alone in Keeping GM Ban

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Earlier this month South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, announced a continuation of the ban on genetically modified (GM) plants which can not be grown in South Australia.

Last year more than 114 million hectares of land was planted to GM crops in 23 countries. Poland and Chile were new additions, with Polish farmers growing Bt maize for the first time.

The USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India and China top the list in order of hectares planted to GM crops with Canadian farmers growing seven million hectares of GM canola, maize and soybean last year.
Greenpeace has been running a campaign against the adoption of new crop varieties in Australia since about 2001 as part of their global campaign against GM food.

The Australian campaign has been phenomenally successful: bans focused on preventing the planting of GM canola varieties were introduced by most state governments in 2004.

The bans are due to be lifted this year in NSW and Victoria.  The South Australian government, despite expectations and the recommendations of its own committee, have decided to keep them in place.

This month Greenpeace has sponsored a visit to Australia by Canadian canola grower, Percy Schmeiser, as part of its continuing campaign against GM – noting that now is a critical time for Australian agriculture with some bans due to expire.

Mr Schmeiser is famous for taking on Monsanto and losing his 'David versus Goliath' battle through the Canadian court system but in the process becoming a martyr for the cause.

In June 2000 Mr Schmeiser was found guilty by the Federal Court of Canada of growing GM canola without a licence thereby infringing patent law.

According to popular mythology, Mr Schmeiser was a victim of contamination of his conventional canola crop with unwanted GM pollen and then a victim of a 'reign of terror' by Monsanto who sued him for growing the GM canola which was a consequence of the unwanted contamination.

But the court found that none of the contamination sources suggested by Mr Schmeiser could reasonably explain the extent or quality of his GM canola crop.

The Judge ruled that Mr Schmeiser saved seed from a 1997 crop and knowingly reproduced the patented plants by using seed from this crop to plant his entire 1998 crop.

Mr Schmeiser lodged and lost two appeals against the decision.

Published in The Land

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