Australian grains group criticises GMO canola exit

Australia's leading grains grower body on Wednesday expressed disappointment at a decision by Monsanto Co to close down its genetically modified canola operations in Australia.
"It certainly puts us behind the eight-ball (and) sends a bad signal to anyone wanting to invest in new technologies in this country," Keith Perrett, President of Grains Council of Australia, told Reuters.
Monsanto Australia confirmed that it was suspending its investment in GMO "RoundupReady" canola in 2004. "The patchwork of different regulatory systems across the states have created an environment of commercial uncertainty," the group's spokesman told Reuters.
The decision would be reviewed next year but there would need to be a significant change in state regulations for Monsanto to proceed with its GMO canola programme, he said. The decision follows bans by state governments on commercial GMO canola crops, even though the federal government has given a go-ahead for gene-spliced canola crops to be commercially grown.
"Unfortunately our state governments have not matured enough to allow an industry to determine its own future, to allow an industry to update a technology which the rest of the world seems to have access to and is outpacing at quite a dramatic rate," the Grains Council's Perrett said. Australia is the second largest canola exporter in the world, after Canada, whose canola crop is 75 percent GMO. Perrett and Monsanto's spokesman both said the decision would leave Australian canola at a cost and yield disadvantage.
Genetic modification imparts productivity gains through increased yields per area sown, through increased resistance to chemical sprays or through increased natural resistance to pests.
Federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss has also said that states that ban GMO crops may be disadvantaging their farmers and Australian agriculture.
In March, the Australian State of Victoria announced a new four-year moratorium on the commercial planting of GMO canola. Premier Steve Bracks said there were still deep divisions and uncertainty within industry, the farming sector and regional communities about market access for GMO crops.
Victoria intends to prohibit the commercial planting of GMO canola until 2008, with tightly controlled non-commercial, low-level trials to be allowed as exceptions.
The Western Australian State government has also placed an indefinite ban on the growing of all GMO crops.