It is important to be clear about who is commenting on public issues of such significance.

Hasbeen has posted 2078 times in total. It looks like someone is financing these comments.

Its also worth noting that whoever is paying is not getting a good deal, because Hasbeen is not doing the research. The story about GM cotton farmers is intended to suggest that following a good experience with Monsanto's cotton, the farmers tried Monsanto's GM wheat. However, Monsanto has not released any GM wheat in Australia as yet - neither commercially, nor as a trial. So have Hasbeen's friends been planting illegal GM wheat?

Or is Hasbeen being paid by Monsanto to spruik a product it wants to foist onto Australian farmers and consumers?

It is important to be clear about who is commenting on public issues of such significance.

Hasbeen has posted 2078 times in total. Who can afford to spend so much time making posts on internet sites? Or is Hasbeen being paid? Its hard to know if Hasbeen does not identify themself.

If someone is paying, they are not getting a good deal, because Hasbeen is not doing the research. The story about GM cotton farmers is intended to suggest that following a good experience with Monsanto's cotton, the farmers tried Monsanto's GM wheat. ("It was only after using Monsanto cotton seed, that they were talked into using their wheat seed. It was a revelation. The commercial seed gave better germination, faster growth, better water tolerance, & a higher yield.")

However, Monsanto has not released any GM wheat in Australia as yet - neither commercially, nor as a trial. So have Hasbeen's friends been planting illegal GM wheat?

Or is Hasbeen being paid by Monsanto to spruik a product it wants to foist onto Australian farmers and consumers?

Claire, did you really write that? Wow, just wow. It is all I can say. Rather than addressing any criticisms of your article, all you do is a massive ad hom.

This is a discussion forum of opinions. People voice opinions on all sorts of topics. People with lots of opinions make lots of comments.

Hasbeen didn’t say anything about GM wheat. Hasbeen was talking about normal wheat, which in Australia is provided to growers by breeding companies like Longreach, Intergrain and AGT. Hasbeen’s anecdote, however, is largely correct. Wheat breeding in Australia is increasing yield potential by about 12% per decade. So buying new wheat seed every decade will give a substantial increase in yield. The other factor that comes into play is that farmer saved wheat declines in viability with storage, because farmer storages are often poor and they don’t always have the ability to dry grain. If the harvest is wet or storage is poor, the yield of the subsequent crop sown with that grain will be less.

@Agronomist

Monsanto does not sell wheat seeds in Australia, GM or otherwise (http://www.monsanto.com.au/products/default.asp) so Hasbeen's comments still come off as, at best, ill-informed, at worst, dishonest.

I haven't responded to any of the other criticisms because I don't think that they are worth responding to. It looks to me like nonsensical industry spin. But when the spin is so far wrong as to be a blatant untruth, as in this case, I feel bound to make that clear.

Otherwise, I'll let the article and the eminent research, including United Nations publications, it refers to, stand for themselves.

Feeding modern society sustainably is probably impossible. In particular, nearly all food is grown, whether 'organically' or otherwise, in places remote from the ultimate destination: cities. Each time a crop is harvested, or an animal sold for slaughter, there is an ongoing export of minerals and trace elements from farm soil to cities. Some ends up in sewerage; some in rubbish dumps and the remainder in the blood and bones of people who are either buried or burnt upon death. This process differs from pre-industrial society where people lived off the land and died on it. Now we replace lost minerals and elements using fertilizers, but this has only been possible through oil. As oil grows scarce and world population continues to grow, feeding it with falling yields and depleting soils will be a challenge.