Countdown to Victoria’s GM moratorium review

The Victorian state ban on GM food crops is up for review in February 2008. The GM Agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Bayer) are throwing their weight behind a campaign to overturn the bans.

Any objection to the bans must be on marketing grounds only. If this government is listening to its electorate, there should be absolutely no question that on market grounds alone the bans should stay in place:

• (a) In polls taken by AC Neilson, Roy Morgan, Millward Brown, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Swinburne University and Choice magazine a majority of Australians did not want to eat GM foods.
• (b) No public poll taken to date has shown a mainstream market acceptance of biotech food.
• (c) 80% of farmers surveyed in a 2002 poll taken by the SA Farmers Federation support a ban on GM food crops.
• (d) In an August 2003 Biotechnology Australia poll 74% of farmers surveyed were not considering using GM crops.
• (e) Studies by Biotechnology Australia and others have found that the more educated people are about genetic engineering, the less likely they are to accept GM foods. A 2006 study also found that “The Australian public see great risks from GM foods and crops and concerns are continuing to rise.”
• (f) On Sunday, April 4 2004, the ABC reported there was ‘no market’ for GM canola in Australia. Processors will not buy GM canola because “customers are not interested in buying GM product”.
• (g) The market will not bear the added costs of the necessary GM segregation that farmers, traders and shoppers demand. A report by DFAT’s David Morgan and Gavin Goh said:
  • • “a number of studies, including by the European Commission, have also estimated that the cost of such segregation and identity preservation systems would be significant. Estimates of the increase in farm-gate prices range from 6-17 per cent. Given the higher costs associated with GM food, GM product-tracing requirements could have the effect of discouraging traders and processors from trading or using GM foods.”
• (h) Worldwide, the market is withdrawing from GM. The European Union is currently discussing the official withdrawal by the biotech industry of five GM foods and crops: maize Bt176 (Syngenta); oilseed rape Ms1xRf1 (Bayer); oilseed rape Ms1xRf2 (Bayer); oilseed rape Topas 19/2 (Bayer); and maize GA21xMON810 (Monsanto). Even as they were being withdrawn, European taxpayers paid for disputes between these companies and the markets that refused them.

In a democracy and in a market, this clear message from shoppers, traders, processors and citizens must be followed. If the GM bans are on marketing grounds only, the market is telling the government it rejects GM food crops outright.

Mr Bracks, where market demand is concerned, the customer is always right. And the customer says no.

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