Thanks Bernie, I expect we are not far away from the organised outrage of the greens but I wanted to thank you anyway (for braving their anger).

I love the term greenmailing - brilliant.

Geoff Davies - "Australia's soil is degrading almost everywhere" - We are the oldest continent on earth - what are you comparing our soil to? (BTW its only degrading if you let it be :))

"Many big technologies are the reason for that" - c'mon Geoff you can do better than that - is it really the size or the uptake of the technology that determines the outcome? Does that make pacemakers bad?

One last comment from Geoff - I love the word boosterism. That is somethign that could take off!

Observor - our soil is degrading, that means it's not as good as it used to be, so I'm comparing it to how it used to be. Plain English I think. Even Government summaries of the state of the environment acknowledge widespread degradation. Leaving it be, with healthy vegetation, would allow it to begin recovering.

Perhaps you're confusing geological timescales with human timescales. The age of Australia's land surface (yes I know about that) is irrelevant to what I said. It's irrelevant on other continents too, because soil is degrading almost everywhere across the world, regardless of its starting quality. Our lifestyle is not sustainable. Elementary.

Soil health is actually improving in many ag areas in Australia. There is a common belief held by most grain farmers that building organic matter in soil will result in healthier crop yields. (mind you much of the assertion comes from the zero-till proponents, backed largely by the chemical companies - if you dont till, then you have spray to remove weeds).

Claims that GM foods will end world hunger are absurd, propagated by those who have a financial interest in converting the world’s food supply to their own patented varieties in order to control it.

With the global increase in GM crops, comes the most recent estimate on malnourished people which was released on October 14, 2009 by FAO which says that 1.02 billion people are undernourished, a sizable increase from its 2006 estimate of 854 million people.

The report states the increase has been due to three factors: 1) neglect of agriculture relevant to very poor people; 2) the current worldwide economic crisis, and 3) the significant increase of food prices in the last several years which has been devastating to those with only a few dollars a day to spend.

GM giants – Monsanto et al, claim that the volume of pesticide use in agriculture has fallen , however, researchers (including those at the Universities of California, and Buenos Aires, Argentina) report a big rise in pesticide use:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5AG0QY20091117

Incidence rates of cancer of the liver, pancreas, kidney, oesophagus, and thyroid have continued to rise in the US, (the largest producer of GM crops) as have the rates of new cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukaemia, myeloma, and childhood cancers. The incidence rates of cancer of the brain and bladder and melanoma of the skin in women, and testicular cancer in men, are also rising.

Monsanto has been lobbying for carbon credits for their Roundup Ready crops - some grown for agrofuel. As Country Gal advised, Roundup Ready crops don’t need ploughing because they can be heavily sprayed with herbicides, thus humans and animals are forcefed weed killer through the food chain.

Not ploughing the fields leaves more CO2 in the ground, but the vast spread of soy monocultures in Latin America have caused deforestation, the displacement of people, and massive amounts of toxic weed-killer.

This is deception and delusion of momentous proportions based on preposterous notions and ideas whose time should never have come. Fraud passed off as logic and ignorance passed off as wisdom.

There has never been a serious study that prove GM crops do not have long term consequences on human health and the environment. There have been marked increases in allergic and immuno related conditions in the Western world that remain unexplained.

GM crops will make no difference to the developing world while the economicy system and corrupt governments continue unabated. This argument is a furphy.

There has been much written about the negative impact on roundup ready GM crops and impact on soil bacteria. Issues like cross pollination and patent rights have the potential to impact our agriculural systems for the long term. These risks outweigh any furphy argument about the benefits of GM for poorer nations.

Thank goodness for healthy scepticism on this issue. Imagine if the failures of some regulatory bodies such as in the use and effect of pesticides, were played out in the radical pro-GM groups. It is confronting.

At the end of the day some aspects of GM may prove safe but until that time I fear money is going to win over common sense, science, truth in labelling and long term studies.

"Farmers are currently the primary beneficiaries of GM technology, with higher yields and lower pesticide usage keeping their costs down."

I'm happy to acknowledge BT modifications have reduced pesticide loads but Roundup resistant GM products have certainly increased herbicide use.

The American soy farmers are putting 50% more Roundup or its equivalents on their crops which are now nearly 100% GM.

Half truths always seem to bedevil this debate.