Organic farmer sues neighbour for GM 'contamination'

West Australian organic farmer Steve Marsh is taking his neighbour Michael Baxter to court after Marsh’s farm was allegedly ‘contaminated’ by genetically modified (GM) canola from Baxter’s farm.

“This case is not about the public’s rights as such, despite some of the media coverage to the contrary,” said Professor Rachel Ankeny, a bioethicist in the School of History and Politics at the University of Adelaide.

“The key ethical issue relating to public choice is about labelling and information provision on both GM and non-GM foods, which is currently inadequate in Australia.”

“Zero contamination is not realistic for crops growing in the vicinity of GM crops,” said Professor Graham King, director of Southern Cross Plant Science at Southern Cross University.

“In Europe, all food (including processed food) or feed which contains greater than 0.9% of approved GMOs must be labelled.”

“How is organic defined? Even if canola crops were contaminated, the gene in question has no effect on oil production etc or for consumption. So it seems to me that this is a very extreme definition of organic,” added Professor Jim Whelan, a specialist in plant science at the AgriBio Centre at La Trobe University.

“GM has been shown to have positive effects on the environment, but sadly positive research about GM rarely makes it into the news. In the last year we have heard how Australian manufacturing is suffering. While Australian research in agriculture is world leading, are we going to deprive stakeholders of the benefits of this research? If so, we risk farming in this country going the same way as the car industry.”

“Genetically modified crops have been grown since 1996, now more than 160 million hectares per year in at least 28 countries. After more than a billion hectares of GM crops planted since their introduction, how is it that Steve Marsh suing his neighbour can be claimed as a landmark case?” said Professor Rick Roush, Dean of the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne.

“The fact is that this case has not and would not happen in the US and other countries because organic certifying agencies allow tolerances for GM presence. From 2004-2006, I was director of the Sustainable Agriculture Program for the University of California. I searched hard for any evidence of a significant on-farm conflict between GM and organic production and found none.”