Australian commission calls for state governments to lift GM crop bans

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The Productivity Commission has released a range of sweeping recommendations to cut the costs of regulation in agriculture.

It … suggests food made with genetically modified ingredients should not need extra labels.

The commission recommends state governments, like [New South Wales], South Australia and Tasmania, lift the ban on planting GM crops, because the ban denies farmers access to technological advances.

“The number and complexity of regulations affecting [agriculture] means the cumulative burden on farmers is substantial,” the report stated.

Agforce pointed out in Queensland alone, 75 acts of Parliament affected agriculture, written on more than 17,000 pages.

In a blunt assessment, the commission is telling federal, state, and local governments to ease up, unless there is good sound economic, social or environmental reasons.

Farmers have long argued for fewer regulations, but the National Farmers Federation (NFF) said not all regulations were bad.

“This is very welcome,” said NFF chief executive Tony Mahar.

“We’ve been advocating for some time for the removal of regulation in agriculture.

“We’re a growing industry with huge opportunities, but it’s regulation that sometimes gets in the way of farmers making these gains.”

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Productivity Commission recommends a wide slash of farm red tape, except biosecurity and food safety

For more background on the Genetic Literacy Project, read GLP on Wikipedia

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