Who thinks what

Professor Mark Tester, Federation Fellow at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and the University of Adelaide, welcomes the lifting of the moratorium on GM canola. "It provides farmers with more choices, including the option of using a much safer herbicide," he says. "The safety and marketability of these crops have been carefully evaluated by numerous independent, refereed studies, and the scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports this technology."

Dr Maarten Stapper, farming systems agronomist from BioLogic AgFood and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology. In contrast to some others in his field, Stapper does not see GM as the solution to problems in agriculture and calls for generational studies to become part of the OGTR regulations for approval. With the rapid advances in gene technology and functional discoveries, making assumptions about the unknown and releasing products too early is hazardous for the future, he believes. "A major concern with GM developments is the loss of independence in food production as a few multinationals will control the seed-chemical-fertiliser supply chain and its regulation. There is no independent science possible on GM crops as companies don't supply seed for such studies unless they see results first to prevent negatives becoming public. Hence experiments are designed to get the answers wanted."

Professor Snow Barlow, from the School of Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Melbourne, says the debate on GM needs to get back to rational scientific debate and analysis. "Together with ... [the] benefits are the challenges and risks of GM canola - its successful integration into farming landscapes in the face of lingering concerns of gene flow to native populations," he says. "I believe these concerns have been satisfactorily answered scientifically but after this acrimonious debate they will linger. Therefore it is essential that the proposed monitoring is carried out diligently and reported regularly. This was done very successfully with GM cotton and should be repeated. I believe that gene flow to native and non GM populations will always be the risk with GM crops rather than the human health risks which have not been demonstrated. In the case of GM canola they have been satisfactorily addressed."

Professor Ray Rose, head of the University of Newcastle Node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research (CILR), is pleased with the State government decisions, reminding people with concerns of the strong national regulatory system in Australia. "It is now 25 years since the first functional genes were introduced into plants and in regulated lab-based research it has lead to a much greater understanding of plant function and how plants interact with their environment and the systems they use against insect pests and pathogens. Together with traditional plant breeding strategies, new technologies like genetic modification offer sustainable agriculture, particularly in Australia where we have wide ranging climate extremes and often fragile soils."

Dr Christopher Preston programme leader for the CRC for Weed Management. "In Australia, most farmers practice minimum tillage, with shallow cultivation, or no-till with no cultivation. In these systems, canola seed is left on the soil surface. Recent surveys of farm canola seed banks in South Australia have shown the seed banks decay rapidly and are almost extinct by 3.5 years after harvest. Farmers in Australia can manage canola seed banks easily by ensuring no deep tillage and no tillage over the summer months in order to leave the seed on the surface."

Dr Peter Vesk, lecturer with expertise in ecological management at the University of Melbourne's School of Botany, argues against the comments on seed persistence by Christopher Preston, saying it is likely there will be persistence of GM seed for over 10 years after a single GM crop. "While much of the decline in soil-stored seed happens in the first year or two, some seeds last for a good deal longer. [There have been] no long-term studies of this so far. It will come down to what risk of GM-contamination people are prepared to bear."

Professor Mark Westoby, plant ecologist with the Department of Biological Science at Macquarie University. "GM crops are difficult to confine. The small percentage of GM canola seeds surviving after 10 years still amounted to about 100 GM seedlings per hectare. We should assume that GM organisms cannot be confined, and ask instead what will become of them when they escape, or when the genes they contain escape to wild relatives. In the particular case of GM herbicide-tolerance, there is no reason why it should have competitive advantage anywhere except where herbicides are being used. So its escape is a potential problem for crop production but not for natural ecosystems."