August 17, 2007

Tension rises over Australia's ban on GM crops

The pressure from the federal government on state governments to loft their bans on genetically-modified crops is growing as the Bureau of Rural Sciences reports that "economic, environmental and agronomic" are the "benefits" from growing GM oilseed crops and "opportunity costs" from not.

The government will release a series of reports over the coming months aimed at getting state governments to not renew bans that will expire from next year. The Labour ministry has accused the Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran of ignoring references in a previous report of consumer resistance, splits among farmers and mixed marketing acceptance overseas.