Today, I was dismayed and alarmed to discover that the Victorian and NSW Governments have passed legislation to allow the "restricted" use of GM canola cropping.

For those unaware, for months now various GM free groups such as organic growers have been sending petitions to State Government officials rejecting attempts to pass this legislation. One may have thought the campaign might be successful in an election year and it was. The cunning b..tards waited until AFTER the election to sneak this odious piece of legislation through quietly.

What do others think about this issue? My bet is that once GM become an established practice in this country, we'll begin to see "colony collapse disorder" as has occurred in the US as a most likely result of using this hideous technology.
Aime.

do you ever wish you had citizen initiative power?

too late to stop gm canola, but if you get busy now, maybe you can stop gm homo sap.

Demos... very insightful :) I welcome you to the same page as myself, in declaring the 'final solution' outcome of 'moral relativism'..... gm homsapiens.....

I'll await you at the sign up desk for "BD's crusaders" :)

Just out of curiosity, what's your foundation for morality? How do you determine right and wrong? Do you just rely on the voice/vote of the citizenry to always get it right?

Aime >>The cunning b..tards waited until AFTER the election to sneak this odious piece of legislation through quietly.<<

hmmm have I not heard you chirping and muttering against 'religion' at times? What you have found here, is that the secular government has 'humped and dumped' your cause in a very 'politically astute' but morally bankrupt manner.. quite Machievellian don't you think ?

I'm not sure of the justification of the cause against gm Canola, because farmers are always genetically modifiying seeds and livestock to improve them without Monsanto's help.. whats the difference?

It is good to see that reason occasionally triumphs over retoric.

PS. Gene therapy for human genetic disorders already exists, and is reducing the suffering of many patients.

David wrote.......
"I'm not sure of the justification of the cause against gm Canola, because farmers are always genetically modifiying seeds and livestock to improve them without Monsanto's help.. whats the difference?"

David, what the farmers are doing could be referred to as "genetic manipulation" or "selective breeding" is a better term. What Monsanto and their ilk are doing is genetic modification. They do this usually by inserting a foreign gene into the hosts (plants in this case) genes. The canola they're talking about now will contain the gene of a bacteria resistant to herbicides, in this case, Glyphosate. It means that they can spray glyphosate on the canola without worrying about killing it along with the weeds and perhaps use less herbicide in the process.

This sound ok in theory, but already they're talking about using GM to make plants resistant to insects. This is where the potential for ruin comes into play. If bees take home pollen to the hive to feed the Queen and the emerging workers, they die. Most other insects that eat parts of the plants also die. The creatures that eat the insects also die, simply because they no longer have a food source. Once the bees are gone, which is happening right now in the US, (colony collapse) natural pollination will stop to a large degree and many home grown products may well cease to exist.

The problem is that nobody fully realises the ramifications of this new technology and I would have thought our Governments would have been a little more cautious considering the damaging potential of GM. Looks like State Labor Governments have been bought by big agri-business.
Aime.

Unfortunately all governments in this day and age end up getting bought by big business. Its really a waste of time trying to get the NSW/Vic state govts to change their minds on this, as it seems obvious they've already decided.

Rudd's capable of stopping this in its tracks & giving us uniform GM laws covering the nation as a whole. Question is, will he do anything or just stay silent on the issue?