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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 3206 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

actually called on Monsanto Canada to withdraw its application for an environmental safety assessment of Roundup Ready wheat, and that was basically because this farmer controlled group, the Canadian Wheat Board, detailed the devastating economic impact the introduction of Roundup Ready wheat will have on western Canadian farmers. I quote:

Economic harm could include lost access to premium markets, penalties caused by rejected shipments, and increased farm management and grain handling costs.

Monsanto has said in the past it would not introduce RRW unless it was beneficial to farmers.

The Canadian Wheat Board claims:

Well, there are no benefits. So we're asking Monsanto to put the interests of their customers, western Canadian farmers, ahead of their own commercial interests and put the brakes on RRW, before Prairie farmers suffer serious financial consequences.

It is also interesting to note in 1999 the British Medical Association, in the first statement on genetically modified organisms by a major medical organisation, said that there should be a moratorium on the commercial planting of GM crops until there is scientific consensus on their long-term environmental effects. The BMA report The impact of genetic modification on agriculture, food and health warns that any adverse effects from GMOs are likely to be irreversible. As we cannot yet know whether there are any serious risks to the environment or human health, the precautionary principle should apply.

The BMA report had 19 recommendations, some of which included:

    there should be an open-ended moratorium on the commercial planting of GM crops, until there is a scientific consensus on safety;

    they should not be released into the environment until the level of scientific certainty makes this acceptable;

    there should be a ban on the use of antibiotic resistant marker genes in GM food as the risk to human health from antibiotic resistance is one of the major public health threats we face in the 21st century;

    the Food Standards Agency should be established as a matter of urgency and given statutory powers to regulate GMO production;

    GM foodstuffs should be segregated at source to ensure traceability and the Food Standards Agency should consider banning mixed GM and non-GM products or insist that they are clearly labelled;