Australia’s organic industry should drop ‘zero tolerance’ of GM food contamination, farmers group says

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There are fears flooding such as in western Australia's wheat belt could intermingle GM, non-GM and organic crops. (Photo: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Flood waters have swept through parts of WA’s grain growing region, sparking concern from some certified organic growers that contamination via flood waters may occur.

WA Farmers grains section president Duncan Young said the organic industry in Australia should look to GM tolerance standards in other countries.

“There are very few places around the world that have zero (tolerance) when you’re talking about other things in a crop, whether it’s barley in wheat or wheat in barley or canola in wheat or anything else, there is always a level there, no zeros,” [he said.]

National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) general manager Mark Anderson disagreed and argued the issue is not about Australia’s standards, but what is expected around the world.

“If you look at the big markets, the growing markets for Australia (such as) Asia — in particular China, Korea, Japan — they all have no tolerance for GM in their organic standards and there are very few places in the world where is there is any,” he said.

But Duncan Young said zero tolerance is not achievable moving forward and a small amount of GM needs to be tolerated.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Organic industry needs to re-evaluate zero tolerance of genetically modified crops: WA Farmers group

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