Government's GM laws condemned

In yet another capitulation to the interests of the big corporations the 
Federal Government's Genetic Engineering laws fail dismally to protect 
farmers and consumers. Greens Senator, Bob Brown, says the laws are "weak 
and will fail". The new regulations came into effect last week.

The laws are supposed to force companies and research organisations to 
disclose projects that involve genetically modified organisms. In an 
attempt to hide their operations 60 of the 120 applications to the 
regulator have applied for "commercial-in-confidence" arrangements. Aventis 
and Monsanto have already made an application for blanket "commercial-in-
confidence" for every site they have in Australia. As well as these two 
transnational giants, applications have come from the CSIRO, universities 
and agricultural departments. Monsanto and Aventis are conducting trials in 
many countries.

Greens Senator Bob Brown said that the US laws are considered weak when it 
comes to GM technology, but they "at least require buffer zones around 
Genetically Engineered crops. Such buffer zones are not required in 
Australia except with experimental crops."

Health Minister Michael Wooldridge insisted that the laws were "world's 
best practice" and would ensure the protection of both human health and the 
environment.

Not so, say genetic engineering campaigners who claim that GM contamination 
threatens other crops and poses public health dangers.

"Totally fails"

Vicki Brooke from GeneEthics Sydney pointed out that the Gene Technology 
Act "totally fails to protect us from the new, unknown risks posed by GM 
crops. There is no provision for assessing the impact on public health and 
the environment, nor is there any transparency.

"Weak rules allow the release of some genetically modified organisms 
without a licence and there are many exemptions from proper risk assessment 
and public disclosure", she said.

As Senator Brown pointed out: "The Minister says these laws insist on 
transparency. But already the Gene Technology regulator has, de facto, 
admitted defeat and says locations won't be published until the 
multinationals like Aventis and Monsanto have exhausted their appeal rights 
so, for example, canola crops can be grown and gone by the time that is all 
sorted out".

He also warned that "under these laws we will inevitably see contamination 
of croplands including the lucrative organic farms and in the longer term 
consumers face the impossibility of obtaining GE-free foods".

Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon (NSW) raised the possibility of potential exports 
worth millions of dollars for NSW if NSW goes along with a regime where 
"genetic corporations could grow GM crops near conventional produce, 
without disclosing the location.

"The Greens want a five year moratorium on genetically engineered crops 
until the food corporations can prove the innocence of their new and 
unproven plants", she said.