September 4, 2008

 

West Australia farmers want government to scrap ban on GM crops

A farm lobby in Western Australia late Wednesday renewed its call on the state's Labour government to scrap a ban on GM crops, but the call will likely fall on deaf ears.

 

Pastoralists & Graziers Association said Premier Alan Carpenter and Agriculture Minister Kim Chance continue to defy a mounting flood of evidence supporting GM technology in crops.

 

The cost to grain growers in the state of not being able to grow broadacre GM crops will be at least AUS$150 million a year, PGA spokesman Leon Bradley said in a statement.

 

Overseas buyers do not discriminate against GM grains and they do not pay any form of premium for non-GM produce, he added.

 

Bradley's comments came after federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday that the adoption of GM crops would help alleviate global food shortages.

 

The Carpenter Government in Western Australia continues to maintain a ban on GM crops, and said Tuesday that the science of GM crops is not settled enough to allow it to happen.

 

"We do not believe we should be taking the risk that is there, with GM technology and food, with the state fortunate to be GM-free at this point," Carpenter said.

 

"We don't want to see W.A.'s A$10 billion agri-food business put at risk by GM technology being forced upon us," he added. 

 

Both farmer lobbies in the state - Pastoralists & Graziers Association and Western Australian Farmers' Federation - have long argued farmers should be allowed to use GM crops, as they do in Victoria and New South Wales states, which scrapped bans late last year.

 

The Labor Government allows trials of GM crops for scientific purposes.

 

An election for the state government is being held Saturday, with a Westpoll voter opinion survey issued Tuesday showing Labor had a comfortable lead over the Liberal Party.

 

Opposition leader Colin Barnett said trials of GM crops under a Liberal Party government would be confined to cotton in the north of the state, while other states could undertake scientifically based trials on GM rapeseed.