Let the Moratorium Expire – The Case for GM Canola

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 A presentation by Dr. Jennifer Marohasy at a Forum on GM at the Victorian Parliament May 22nd 2007 

Thankyou for the opportunity to speak briefly tonight on a subject I am passionate about – GM food crops and biotechnology.  Let me begin by saying it is time to end the moratorium/the bans on GM canola in Victoria and give your farmers and consumers a choice.  

 There has been no upside.   Just less investment in biotechnology, fewer opportunities for new graduates and new biotechnology companies, and your canola industry is about to go bust – I will explain shortly – all this a consequence of the bans introduced by this parliament in 2004.

There is no moratorium on GM food crops in Queensland and some of my friends grow GM cotton.  Since the adoption of the GM varieties they use, on average, 85% less pesticide, and 10% less water.   There is no downside to GM cotton. 

And a best kept secret is that about 35% of the vegetable oil we consume in Australia is from locally grown GM cotton seed oil.   Your local fish and chip shop probably cooks in cotton seed oil – so you’re probably been eating GM fish and chips for about 10 years – given fish and chips contain a lot of oil. 

But don’t expect Greenpeace to tell you about it!   They claim they want to keep Australia GM free.

Last year Greenpeace activists demonstrated in Newcastle as a shipment of GM canola was offloaded. 

The Victorian canola crop pretty-much failed last year because of the drought, so Canadian canola was imported to make up the shortfall.  Most of the Canadian canola crop is GM.

Permission was given for the GM imports for processing as vegetable oil. 

About the same time Australian McDonald’s restaurants – which had previously proudly advertise that it cooked its food in Australian canola oil –  announced it was changing from canola. This wasn’t because of the Canadian GM imports, but rather it was switching to new oil blends with much less trans-fatty acids.

Oils high in trans-fats are claimed to increase the risk of heart disease, hence the move from canola in Europe and the US to oils with a low linolenic acid profile, including new GM soybean varieties.  Not to be out done, Canadian canola growers are now planting low trans-fat varieties.  The low trans-fat trait is not GM, but it is combined with other traits which are GM to produce a high yielding, low trans-fat GM variety.  

These new varieties could not be grown here in Victoria because of the bans.

The moratorium on GM food crops is due to expire next year.  If the bans are not lifted I can’t really see much of a future for the Australian canola industry.
Indeed last year we imported a product, GM canola, that your farmers are banned from growing and now you are looking at losing markets to GM varieties with superior nutrition value – again because you have banned your farmers from growing GM crop varieties.

Let me summarize by saying it is time to end the moratorium/the bans on GM canola in Victoria.  It is time to give your farmers a choice, time to encourage investment in biotechnology, time to give your new graduates and biotechnology companies every opportunity to succeed.  It is also time to save your canola industry!   Thank you.

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