GM strain blows organic status away

GMO-s cannot be recalled or controlled. They spread in nature contaminating wild plants, non-GM and organic crops and destroying organic farmers' businesses. So how long till Monsanto and other biotech companies can claim all contaminated non-GM crops as their own?? This news is from Australia. 

By Natasha Bita

MUTANT canola crops genetically engineered to survive repeated sprayings of herbicide have been approved for planting.

This is despite the furore over GM contamination of an organic farm.

The West Australian Minister for Agriculture and Food, Terry Redman, has called on the organic industry to bend its rules to permit some GM material, declaring purity to be "unrealistic".

WA grain farmer Steve Marsh was stripped of his organic certification this week after GM canola seeds allegedly blew 1.5km over his boundary from a neighbouring property at Kojonup, southeast of Perth. He is now setting an Australian precedent by threatening to sue for damages.

"The GM industry must control its technology," Mr Marsh said yesterday.

"If a GM farmer wishes to grow it, that's his business, but he must be responsible that it doesn't impact on his neighbours."

Mr Marsh said he was considering legal action but was awaiting the results of a WA government investigation.

A spokeswoman for Monsanto -- which sells the GM canola seeds as well as the Roundup herbicide used to spray it for weeds -- yesterday said the multinational corporation would support the GM farmer if the case ended in legal action.

"The threshold for accidental presence in organic crops is an important issue which needs to be addressed to enable coexistence," the minister wrote in the letter, obtained by The Australian yesterday. "The European Union recently adopted a threshold of 0.9 per cent unintentional presence of approved GM material in organic products.

The federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator yesterday approved a four-year trial of Monsanto's newest GM canola strain in NSW, Victoria and WA from next March.

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