Monsanto Freaks Out Over GE Ban in Western Australia

Australian Financial Review
March 24, 2004

Monsanto Slams Western Australia GM Ban

By: Annabel Day

Farmers and biotechnology company Monsanto yesterday condemned the West
Australian government's ban on genetically modified crops.

But the NSW government ruled out a similar GM ban.

Earlier this week, WA premier Geoff Gallop announced a ban on GM crops
because it was unclear what international consumer reaction to allowing them
might be.

But a spokesman for Monsanto, the world's biggest GM research company,
described the WA decision as disappointing and puzzling given that the state
had been closely involved in trialling GM cotton.

Monsanto's Mark Buckingham said research viewed by the WA government had
shown that "99.7 per cent of customers of WA canola didn't distinguish
between GM and non-GM."

The Grains Council of Australia also attacked the ban.

"I find it quite amazing that government is imposing itself and making
decisions on this," Grains Council president Keith Perrett said.

"At the end of the day we have federal regulators who have looked at the
environmental and health impacts, and analysed it rigorously and approved
it."

A spokeswoman for NSW agriculture minister Ian Macdonald said yesterday that
it was "impractical for NSW to become a GM-free state".

"We decided a long time ago that we would allow the cultivation of certain
GM products and already have several thousand hectares of cotton growing in
NSW, as well as smaller plantings of GM carnations."

While a GM moratorium was still in place in NSW, Mr Macdonald's spokeswoman
hinted that he might rule in favour of a proposed 3500 hectare marketing
trial of GM canola. "We believe in the vital role of research to answer some
of the questions farmers and the community still have ," she said.

Victoria is yet to decide whether a moratorium on GM will be lifted.