With the lifting of two moratoria on genetically modified crops in Australia recently, so did the inevitably polarised debate take off. Those for and against are unlikely to change their minds and, unfortunately, some scientists are now afraid to speak theirs.

NSW set to lift GM crop moratorium, while Victoria faces a tougher test.

Professor German Spangenberg is arguably Australia's leading researcher into plant genetics and genomics.

Drought-proof wheat lines will be trialled at two sites in Victoria.

Scientists at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong have launched a potentially revolutionary research project aimed at reducing the threat of the lethal H5N1 avian influenza virus.

The federal government has appointed the chairs of the 13 assessment panels being established under the controversial research quality framework (RQF) system.

Western Australia's agriculture minister, Kim Chance, is taking what many are now seeing as an overly cautious stance on biotechnology. Graeme O'Neill reports.

Livestock vaccine developer Imugene's (ASX:IMU) chicken immune-system booster has crossed a major intersection on the road to market by receiving approval from the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator to trial its genetically modified product outside full laboratory containment.

In many places in the world, 'biotechnology' only means agricultural biotech. The same can't be said in Australia, where GM technology is a dirty word. But could economics and technology force Australia to change its views on biotech crops to keep up with the rest of the world?

The taskforce appointed by the Australian Oilseeds Federation and the Australian Seeds Federation to investigate the recent detection of genetically modified canola seed in a small, non-GM shipment has found the contamination was limited to just one commercial cultivar.

The first cracks have appeared in the Australia-wide moratoria on genetically modified crops, with the decision of the Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC) to adopt a threshold level of 0.9 per cent for adventitious presence of GM grain in conventional canola.