AUSTRALIA: GMO stance 'hurting state'

AUSTRALIA

GMO stance 'hurting state'

MAINTAINING Tasmania's ban on the commercial release of genetically modified organisms will put the state's farmers at a significant disadvantage.

According to CropLife Australia chief executive officer Matthew Cossey.

Tasmania's GMO moratorium is currently under review and Mr Cossey would encourage anyone making a public submission later this month to think critically about this issue and seek out the facts.

Mr Cossey was one of several speakers at the third annual Peracto Industry Seminar held at the Devonport Waterfront Function Centre.

He discussed the importance of innovation, and the very real obstacles obscuring the path to a future where Australia's agriculture leads the world both in sustainability and productivity.

In his speech in 2012 he said a record 17.3 million farmers, in 28 countries planted more than 170 million hectares of genetically modified crops.

"This represents an annual growth rate of 6 per cent over 2011 plantings," Mr Cossey said.

"The unprecedented and continually increasing adoption rates of this technology are testimony to the value millions of farmers worldwide are placing on GM crops."

CropLife Australia represents the agricultural chemical and crop biotechnology, or plant science sector in Australia.

The plant science industry is currently worth more than $1.5 billion a year to the Australian economy and directly employs thousands of people across the country

Mr Cossey said as the peak industry body he had a vested interest in the success of the crop biotechnology industry.

"However, the scientific consensus around the safety of genetically modified food and crops is as strong as the scientific consensus around climate change, as is the science around the environmental benefits of GM crops," he said.

Mr Cossey said the nation's farming sector clearly held the potential to become Australia's biggest and most important strength over this century.

"Demand will continue to increase for food, feed and fibre as the world's population grows to nearly 10 billion by 2050," he said.

In 2012 Australia grew 688,000 hectares of GM crops, made up of 512,000 hectares of GM cotton and 176,000 hectares of GM canola.

Mr Cossey said the enhanced Australian farm income from GM crops was estimated at $688 million for the period of 1996 to 2011.

"The benefits for 2011 alone (are estimated) at $205.95 million," he said.

Australian cotton farmers have been using GM technology since 1996, and today almost all the nation's crop is comprised of GM varieties exclusively.

"Australian cotton growers are realising an average gain of over $180 per hectare from using the technology," he said.

Mr Cossey said since 2008, farmers in some states have had access to the technology in canola.

"Despite only restricted access, in 2012 approximately 10 per cent of the total national canola crop was genetically modified," he said.

"GM canola realised a financial benefit of around $73 per hectare.

"An analysis of National Variety Trial results from 2009-2012 also confirm the significant yield benefits."

Farmers in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia now have the opportunity to choose if they want to grow approved GM canola varieties.

Mr Cossey said that Tasmanian farmers are being denied these agronomic, economic and environmental benefits.

"The government of Tasmania has decided, ostensibly for trade and marketing reasons, to deny Tasmanian farmers access to this technology, despite it being available to the majority of their competitors on Mainland Australia and to our most significant global agricultural competitors," he said.

Mr Cossey said all regulation should be proportionate with the associated risk, cost and benefit to the community.

"Unnecessary regulation brings with it an unnecessary burden on innovation," he said.

"Such unnecessary burden and restriction will only hinder Australian agriculture."

Mr Cossey said the current gene technology regulatory system in Australia already imposed a much greater level of regulatory burden on the industry than occurred in many other countries.

"This burden is exacerbated by unclear and inconsistent market interventions by state governments," he said.

Looking ahead, Mr Cossey said it was imperative to move the conversation on GM crops (and agricultural biotechnology more broadly) forward, for the sake of Australia's national interest.

"It is our responsibility as representatives of the agricultural industry in Australia to move the conversation into a new paradigm based in future benefit," he said

"To do that will take new thinking, new structures, and increased co-operative operations across the agricultural sector.

"No state should be left behind as we move into that new future for farming." THE ADVOCATE