Biotechnology is a huge field and GM is only a very small part of it. ACT is a political boundary or "a town designed for research" in a pretty formidable rocky area, certainly not known for its huge crop growing area!

This weeks story about "medical miracles"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1731919,00.html

"Investigators began an urgent inquiry yesterday into the clinical trial that has left six healthy volunteers in intensive care, as scientists voiced fears the disaster could prove a major setback to developing cures for life-threatening diseases."

"The girlfriend of one of the men, Myfanwy Marshall, said her 28-year-old boyfriend had swollen beyond recognition. She said his doctors had told her: "He needs a miracle; those were their words, he needs a miracle.""

"It is increasingly likely that the drug itself, given at the right dose, was to blame - an explanation that could have very serious consequences for research into the biological drugs called monoclonal antibodies which are the bright hope for better treatments in the future."

"The trial drug is not a chemical but a biological product, a genetically engineered "humanised" protein. Unlike the old chemical entities, these monoclonal antibodies are designed to be accepted by the human body, which experts say makes it difficult to work out by animal testing what dose would be toxic to humans."

"The volunteers took the drug on Monday - the first time that humans had been exposed to it. Within hours they were critically ill. Yet the MHRA and the regulatory authorities in Germany, where the biotech company TeGenero is based, had both examined the data from the animal tests and allowed the human trial to proceed."

"When drugs are first tested on humans, doctors do not expect any response at all. But the six men who had taken the drug suffered a massive inflammatory reaction. Scientists are concerned that the incident may deter people from volunteering to take part in clinical trials."

Who wants to be a human guinea pig for a GM experiment?

This atrocity is exactly why I don’t want GM in my food or medicines. How dare they play with peoples lives like this! As was shown, the animal trials did not show up this catastrophic allergic reaction in animals, only humans so animal testing appeared pointless. Who would ever want to volunteer to be a human guinea pig again? If they can't test it on humans, will they just release it anyway?

Do you see now how much GM is a biohazard?

If this biohazard is let loose to contaminate our food through crops, how and are you going to recall the product? If the scientific tests come out that all GM is hazardous to peoples health, you will have destroyed most farmers livelihoods with your stupidity and possibly injured or killed others. I hope that all the GM companies get sued to the maximum degree for this ignorance and injustice to mankind

W. Doerfler's studies shows that natural plant DNA presents the same issues as GM DNA in plants. Doerfler has published a good overall review which put worries about food DNA into a realistic context:

"The results on the fate of food-ingested foreign DNA in the mammalian organism have been discussed among specialists concerned about food in general and about genetically modified organisms in the food chain in particular. Although it will be mandatory to consider this problem case by case, the food-consuming public can be reassured by the realization that all kinds of foreign genes in almost limitless combinations have been part of the food chain throughout the evolution of the species Homo sapiens and other species as well. For millennia, these genes and their breakdown products with high recombinatorial capacities have been constant partners in our gastrointestinal inner milieu and that of other species."

Doerfler W, Hohlweg U, Muller K, Remus R, Heller H, Hertz J. Foreign DNA integration--perturbations of the genome--oncogenesis.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001 Sep;945:276-88. Review.

Mutagenic natural DNAs: In a recent genome-wide analysis of rice, the sequences of virtually all Stowaway MITEs (mutagenic natural DNAs)and Mariner-like elements (called Osmars) were identified and compared.

More than 22 000 Stowaway MITEs were classified into 36 families, while 34 different Osmars were found. Comparative analysis led to the formulation of a model for Stowaway amplification whereby Stowaway MITEs were mobilized by Osmar's transposases encoded by seemingly, distantly related elements.

Clearly natural plant DNA movement is common and rivals or exeeds human genetic engineering of plants. Omar's already made 22000 gene insertions in rice, and man the plant breeder has barely started. And we've yet to properly count the activities of Helitron and Polinton, nDart and numerous other natural mutagenic.
There no evidence though, that CaMV has this activity.

http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2006/03/friendly-uncle-osmar-mariner-helped.html

d, surely you aren't surprised with the research paper at www.gmsciencedebate.org.uk/topics/forum/pdf/0077b.pdf as it has been prepared by Monsanto Co. Feb 2003.

Consumers are quite capable of making up their own minds but independent health testing has the potential to alleviate concerns. The main debate for consumers is that they are not confident in the health testing but hopefully Judy Carman will allay fears. But if health testing shows a serious problem, farmers will need to recall GM crops and we will certainly be glad no GM canola is grown commercially.

Interesting info given by US specialists at Grains Week a few days ago.
The 3 main GM crops grown in US are corn, soy and cotton...
The 3 top subsidised crops (accounting for 80% of US subsidies) were corn, soy and cotton.
It is unlikely that a GM grower in US could remain viable if they were not subsidised.

And of course Argentina is a top GM grower but they refuse to pay royalties after evicting Monsanto.

Australia will not be able to avoid royalties and will not pay farmers subsidies so how exactly will GM be a benefit for farmers?

Also, Bayer Cropscience think the statistics calculations are wrong.

D, you obviously don’t care that you are trying to force your biohazard onto a public that does not want it. So far all the so called “amazing scientific testing” that you have mentioned, have major flaws and nearly all the scientist papers have said “more scientific testing needs to be done”.

They are not independent scientific tests and do not show me if analysis is done on quantitative or qualitative results. Even the cross-contamination research that you hold close to your chest shows that it was done in Germany with only bees pollinating, the wind speed is not given and the 2nd year showed that there was a reduction in seeds sown. This is only one sample of what I have found to be scientific manipulation on the part of the major chemical companies paying for this research.

It doesn’t matter to me that you or any pro-GM’s say that it is safe as so far you have not proven to me without a doubt that your GM is positively 100% safe, in fact it has been the opposite. Until the independent test results come back, especially Judy Carman’s as she will have no bias, then I will always think of GM as a biohazard.

Fron The Canberra Times:

Australia's fear of GM crops is hampering our competitiveness

9th April 2006

...Economic modelling by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics shows that, for low-income developing
countries, the lower production costs of GM crops could lead to increased margins for farmers. Australian opponents of GM
crops often cite Europe's unease as cause for stymieing GM production here, but the latest developments at the WTO cast doubt
on how long Europe's doors will be closed. With GM moratoriums in all states except Queensland, Australian farmers are currently
denied access to all GM crops other than cotton and carnations.

Despite scientific assessment and subsequent approval of a number of GM crop varieties by the federal Office of the Gene
Technology Regulator, the states maintain GM moratoriums.

These are not only damaging Australia's international competitiveness, but in a debate that has been characterised by
misinformation, they also reaffirm the widespread suspicion among Australia's metropolitan community that there is something
unduly ''risky'' about GM crops.

It will probably come as a surprise to many that GM crops have been endorsed by some of the most eminent health and
agricultural organisations in the world.

Last year the World Health Organisation issued a report acknowledging the potential of GM crops to enhance human health and
development. The report found that GM foods were not likely, nor had been shown, to present risks for human health...

Last year more than 8 million farmers in 21 countries planted more than 90million hectares to GM crops.

Since the first commercial plantings a decade ago, adoption of GM has increased by double-digit growth rates every year. Many
of the farmers growing these crops are from developing countries. Because GM crops reduce the need for pesticides and tillage
(and therefore fuel) they are being embraced by farmers in areas where such inputs are prohibitively costly.

With the WTO decision raising the potential for increased access to European markets, fears among growers of trade barriers are
starting to dissipate, and even higher adoption rates are likely to ensue.