Generically Manipulated Optimism: fast track for GMOs

The Australian government’s efforts to push genetically engineered (GE) crops and foods onto farms and our dinner tables has been stalled by public mistrust. Unauthorised releases, weak regulatory options, empty promises and PR posing as education have made people very wary about GE in both the cities and country.

The federal government’s disinformation campaign organisation, Biotechnology Australia, was set up a year ago with $10 million from the public purse to promote the benefits of GE. Transnational public relations firm Turnbull Porter Novelli is advising Biotechnology Australia on its $7.4 million public awareness strategy.

The first of a series of forums was held in South Australia to calm public disquiet soon after the unauthorised release of GE canola plants near Mount Gambier by the transnational agrochemical giant, Aventis. Canola harvested from the Aventis site was left in a roadside dumpster and on the local tip, recklessly flouting the conditions for safe disposal of this material.

The company had not even told the farmer the crop was genetically engineered, using misleading terms such as "hybrid". Local councils and neighbouring farmers were also not informed of the location of the plantings.

Biotechnology Australia is orchestrating a concerted push for maximum media coverage of their pro-GE views. This needs to be met with strong public opposition through letters to newspapers, contributions to talk-back radio, letters to politicians and all other means of showing concern. Last year Aventis, and its corporate competitor Monsanto, grew nearly 2,000 hectares of herbicide-tolerant canola at almost 200 sites across Australia. The Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee (GMAC) ruled that 400m wide "buffer zones" must be established around each GE site. These will have been totally ineffective because international research shows canola pollen can travel up to 6 km to infect other canola crops. This means that seed harvested from canola crops within a 6 km radius could contain foreign herbicide-resistance genes. Canola pollen can also cross-fertilise related plants such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and many common weed species to enter the food chain and environment through these plants.

GE canola also threatens organic and "GE-free" markets, which may be destroyed if GE pollen drifts into certified crops. Despite GMAC’s recommendation against these herbicide tolerant crops being approved for general release, much of the canola was exported for commercial use. Now GMAC is set to recommend the planting of a further 2,200 hectares of GE canola by the same companies.

Australian governments will establish an Office of Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) by 3rd January 2001 to replace the GMAC advisory system which is unenforceable and open to abuse. The Aventis canola fiasco was only the latest of thirteen unauthorised releases.

Yet the Government’s draft Bill for the OGTR merely enshrines the failed GMAC system in law, giving the OGTR a minor gap-fill role. A roadmap guides people through a maze of existing product regulators, such as the Australia and New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA), the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), or the Quarantine Service (AQIS) which would continue to receive proposals, with the OGTR as a backup. Many uses of GE would be exempt and most others will continue under guidelines. The Senate Committee on Community Affairs is now reviewing the Gene Technology Bill 2000 and invites public comments.

My organisation, GenEthics, has an alternative model. It would establish a ‘One Stop Shop’ where all applications to use GE processes or release their products would be submitted directly to the OGTR.

The OGTR would co-ordinate an integrated, user-friendly, and transparent system to ensure the mandatory assessment, monitoring and licensing of all GE activities. Environment Australia would do pre- and post-release environmental assessments and audits under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

If GE products are to be forced into our food supply and environment, comprehensive labelling of these products should also be mandatory and immediate. A decision on the labelling of foods produced using gene technology was made at the end of July.

State and federal health ministers decided that some foods would be labelled but additives, processing aids and refined foods produced using gene technology are exempt.

At the international level, Australia should immediately sign and implement the Biosafety Protocol, negotiated in January under the Convention on Biological Diversity. It sets rules in an attempt to ensure that handling, transfer and use of genetically engineered organisms between countries is safe.

Some groups, including the National Farmers Federation, oppose Australia signing the treaty, claiming that it offers scope for other countries to raise non-tariff barriers to trade. But the protocol is consistent with World Trade Organization rules on scientific assessment and enshrines the precautionary principle already in many laws. Australia can only reduce international biosafety by signing the Protocol.

Genetic engineering is a potentially dangerous technology. There should be a five-year freeze on release of GE organisms during which proper safety assessments can be made, tough laws are enacted and the public decides whether or not we need GE.

The campaign for a five-year freeze and "GE-free zones" is gathering momentum. Tasmania has a one-year freeze on all releases and its laws declare GE organisms as pests. Western Australia has a two-year freeeze on commercial releases.

Many influential leaders and groups support a freeze, including Berri CEO Doug Shears, nutritionist Rosemary Stanton and ACF President Peter Garrett. Fifty-five percent of 800 farmers recently surveyed favour a five-year freeze and National Farmers Federation President Ian Donges favours a two to three-year pause.

Many local councils and shires have declared their food services or territory GE-free. The Victorian Agriculture Minister proposes GE-free zones to ensure that organic and other farmers can choose to be GE-free.

You can contribute to this worthwhile campaign by asking your local council to become GE-free and commit to a minimum five-year freeze on: release into the environment of GE crops, microbes or animals for research or commercial purposes; imports of genetically engineered foods and GE organisms and; patents on living organisms.

GE foods are being promoted on many levels, with the world's most powerful corporations attempting to control the entire chain of food production from paddock to plate.

These companies are the major winners from the development of GE crops and foods, and they will profit at the expense of human health, the environment and the fairness of our society.

More Biotechnology Australia forums are scheduled for regional Australia and it is very important that concerned people attend to question the speakers and have a say. The forum panels consist only of proponents of gene technology.

Details of these meetings can be obtained from Biotechnology Australia’s Manager of Public Awareness, GPO Box 9839, Canberra 2601, Phone: 02 6213 6805.