The WA Premier Colin Barnett has said he wants to see genetically engineered (GE) canola produced in Western Australia. It is hard to see why when there is no market in the world that wants it.
Last week Greenpeace launched the 2010 Truefood Guide. It rates over a thousand of Australia’s top food and beverage brands […]
“Salt-tolerant GM plants could help feed the world” reads the headline in today’s copy of The Age. Sounds impressive huh? Until you read the actual scientific article that the report is referring to and discover that the research is still at proof of concept stage and was done in rockcress (Arabdopsis) - hardly an important […]
This is the question being posed by English pig farmer Jimmy Doherty, who fronts a documentary to be screened on SBS this Tuesday (also called “Can GE Food Save the World?).
The program’s producers have tried to give the appearance of being fair and balanced in their approach. In reality, the program is far from […]
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr Shiv Chopra, a former scientific advisor at Health Canada who is currently touring Australia. He is here to talk how our regulators are failing us when it comes to food safety and how to remedy the situation.
Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on food retailer ALDI’s […]
This week, ABC television program “Australian Story” told the story of Dr Maarten Stapper, one of Australia’s leading specialists on organic farming. It’s an insight into how public interest science is being undermined by vested interest.
Dr Stapper worked for the CSIRO for 23 years before he was sacked for criticising genetically engineered (GE) crops. He […]
Rice is daily food for half the world’s population. Genetically engineered (GE) rice, on the other hand, is a threat to our agriculture, our biodiversity and a possible risk to our health.
At present, GE rice is not commercially grown anywhere in the world. But allow me to introduce LL62, a GE rice variety from German […]
Despite a Senate motion and against the wishes of many farmers, councils and others, the West Australian Government is about to betray its moratorium on genetically engineered (GE) crops.
The WA Senate this month passed a motion to disallow field trials (the stage before commercial growing) of GE canola. To date, WA has remained GE-free, […]
Our German colleagues have good cause to break out the Riesling this week. Germany has become the sixth European Union country to ban the cultivation of Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) corn — MON810.
“I have come to the conclusion that there are legitimate grounds to accept that genetically modified corn from the MON810 strain constitutes […]
Keith is a small town near South Australia’s border with Victoria and the first stop in the SA leg of a tour by North American farmers Moe Parr and Ross Murray. They are touring canola-growing regions in rural Australia to talk to farmers about their experiences with genetically engineered (GE) crops.
After adjusting to driving […]
I’m in Perth at the moment. It’s week 3 of being on the road with Moe Parr and Ross Murray, two farmers from North America here to share their experiences of genetically engineered (GE) crops with Australian farmers.
We kicked off at Yarrawonga, on the banks of the Murray River before we travelled to Melbourne and […]
That’s what our colleagues at Greenpeace New Zealand are saying about a field trial of a genetically engineered (GE) crop that’s gone askew across the Tasman. It’s a warning we need to listen to here in Australia.
The crop in question was growing at Lincoln, near Christchurch. They were trialling GE brassicas – cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower […]
Remember when trials of genetically engineered (GE) canola were conducted last year? Well, the results are in and the GE crops flunked.
GE canola yielded 17% less than non-GE herbicide-tolerant canola varieties in the independent trials of the crop. The results are consistent with trials for other GE crops, such as soy. Roundup Ready soy GE […]
It seems our Food Regulator is in the spotlight. Again.
Over the weekend, two Sydney Morning Herald articles reported on accusations that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is failing to do its job. First, that it puts the interests of multinationals before consumers and public health.
Second, that the regulator is failing to require the […]
Companies manufacturing genetically engineered (GE) crops not only have a reputation for tampering with DNA, but also for tampering with facts.
Well, the latest story going around the spin cycle is by Charles Miranda. It incorrectly states that a report by a United Nations expert panel of chemists and engineers claims we need GE crops […]
Crikey recently reported how Keith Windschuttle, the editor of the conservative magazine Quadrant, was taken in by a hoax intended to show that he will print outrageous propositions.
This month’s edition of Quadrant contains a hoax article authored by “Sharon Gould”, who purports to be a Brisbane-based biotechnologist.
The spoof article argues that, despite the […]