GM multinationals exploiting loopholes/Call for GM site disclosure in Oz

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GMW: GM multinationals exploiting loopholes/Call for GM site

disclosure in Oz

 

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Tue, 21 Sep 2004 20:43:42 +0100

 

 

 

http://ww.gmwatch.org

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Note in item 2 how only neighbouring farmers within 400 metres of a GM

cultivation zone in Australia need to be told of GM cultivation. Seems

a bit meagre after the latest revelations of GM pollen contaminating

over a distance of 21 miles!

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4376

 

1.Thailand: GM multinationals exploiting loopholes

2.Oz: Bracks asks for GM site disclosure

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1.GM multinationals exploiting loopholes

Govt urged to 'get its act together fast'

TUL PINKAEW

Bangkok Post, 22 September 2004

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/22Sep2004_news22.php?PHPSESSID=6f0316277319461d5\

b41a659cfa2c117

 

Secret testing of genetically modified (GM) crops prohibited by law are

still being conducted under supervision of foreign multinationals,

because of loopholes in the law, said the chairman of National Bio Safety

Committee (NBC).

 

" The 1999 amendment of the 1964 Plant Quarantine Act prohibits GM

testing of 40 plant species including corn and cotton. But testing of

these two plants can still be found today in Nakhon Sawan and many

other places,'' said Assoc Prof Banpot Napompeth.

 

" The reason for this is that field trials of BT cotton and corn,

brought into the country by genetic giants like Monsanto and Cargil,

were done before the 1999 amendment. The act only prohibits testing of

GM crops that were brought in after the year 2000,'' Mr Banpot said.

 

Under the quarantine act, papayas, chillies and tomatoes are open for

GM testing, as they are supposedly safe to eat.

 

Professor Banpot is in charge of the biodiversity law drafting

committee set up since 1983, to draw up a specific set of rules to

control GM testing and consumption.

 

" More than two decades have passed and we still don't have a specific

law to control the GM movement. Every new government wants to have its

own biodiversity committee and keeps adding and subtracting new

members to our team. The government needs to get its act together and

stop interfering with what they don't know and let us work.''

 

Both supporters and opponents of GM crops may each have their own

agenda, but both agree with Professor Banpot, saying the government

needs to introduce new laws to clarify its own stance.

 

" We cannot stop the testing of GM crops because it might well prove to

be beneficial to the country's economic prosperity. But we need to

have laws that can handle the wide spectrum of problems that would

occur,'' said Jade Donavanik, a biodiversity law expert.

 

Mr Jade told a public forum on Monday that he is in the process of

finding volunteers to help draft a public version of the biodiversity

law to present to the government, in order to speed up the process.

 

Chatchaphon Pittayathikhun, an organic agronomist and entrepreneur,

urged the speeding up of bio-safety laws. He also wants the government

to establish some kind of national standardisation body to guarantee

Thai organic crops for export.

 

" Since the GM papaya contamination broke out, many European countries

are now asking local organic exporters to submit an internationally

recognised certificate attesting Thai crops are GMO-free. These can

only be obtained from foreign laboratories, as Thailand does not have

its own national testing standard,'' Mr Chatchaphon said.

....

More news from Thailand: http://www.biothai.org/

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2.Bracks asks for GM site disclosure

By Richard Baker, Melissa Marino

September 22, 2004

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/21/1095651324283.html?oneclick=true

 

Victorians could soon know the location of the latest genetically

modified canola trials being conducted in the state after the Bracks

Government yesterday asked Bayer CropScience if the secret sites could

be revealed.

 

Department of Primary Industries officials met Bayer executives

yesterday to discuss making the GM crop sites public after the

Government was criticised by local government and anti-GM groups for

allowing the trials on 80 hectares to be conducted secretly.

 

A spokeswoman for Agriculture Minister Bob Cameron said Bayer was

getting legal advice on whether any confidentiality provisions it had

with farmers involved in the GM trials would be breached by the

disclosure of locations.

 

A Bayer spokeswoman declined to comment but suggested the company

might have more to say today.

 

Earlier yesterday, Premier Steve Bracks said the Government had not

released the location of the GM trials out of respect for the

commercial arrangements of Bayer. Mr Bracks said the sites would be

made public only with the approval of the multinational giant.

 

The meeting between the Government and Bayer came as outspoken Labor

backbencher Dianne Hadden said the Government had to stop using

commercial confidentiality as an " excuse " to keep the public in the

dark over GM crop locations.

 

" Commercial confidentiality is just another word for secret, " Ms

Hadden said. " It's absolutely crucial for openness and accountability

in Government for the location of these to be made public. "

 

Having earlier this year put public pressure on Mr Bracks to extend

the moratorium on commercial GM canola crops, Ms Hadden said farmers,

small business operators, local councils and the general public should

be told the location of GM sites.

 

We've already met a fellow ... in Melbourne who said as soon as he

hears where they are he'll go and destroy them.

IAN HASTINGS, Victorian Farmers FederationThe Victorian Farmers

Federation yesterday revealed it knew where one GM trial site was but

refused to provide details for fear of sabotage by campaigners.

 

The federation's grains president, Ian Hastings, said: " We've already

met a fellow in the street in Melbourne who said as soon as he hears

where they are he'll go and destroy them. "

 

Mr Hastings said he was not concerned about the prospect of GM crops

contaminating other crops (which can happen if buffer zones are too

small).

 

But Network of Concerned Farmers spokeswoman Julie Newman said

neighbouring farmers might not know there were trial sites nearby

because, under the rules, only neighbours within 400 metres of the GM

cultivation zone needed to be told.

 

Ms Newman said GM seeds could travel on the wind, putting at risk

neighbouring farmers' GM-free status. This could land them in legal

trouble if they had signed contracts with suppliers that they were

GM-free, she said.

 

The network has placed a notice on its website calling on people to

contact them if they think they know where GM trial sites are.

 

Agriculture Minister Bob Cameron in May approved a request from Bayer

to conduct GM trials just months after the Government extended the

moratorium on the commercial planting of GM canola by four years.

 

Mr Cameron is expected to come under pressure from his own Bendigo

West electorate over the Government's stance on the disclosure of the

trial sites.