kartiya jim

Your farmer friend has a simple solution. He doesn’t have to grow Roundup Ready canola in which case he won’t have to use other herbicides to control it.

I suspect he was being disingenuous as he is probably already spraying that other chemical now to control broadleaf brassica weeds within his wheat crop. He will just have to use it at a different time if he wants to grow Roundup Ready canola.

Canadian experience has shown there are virtually no costs associated with cross contamination. There were some early issues when growers forgot they could not control Roundup Ready canola volunteers with Roundup, but they are over that now. GM canola has now got to over 80% of canola in Canada and continuing to climb. Surely if there were major costs associated with GM canola, Canadian growers would not use it? Or do you just think all Canadians are stupid?

Eftfnc

Allow me to say that the article you pointed to was plain silly. Here you have anti-globalization organisations convincing a Third-World farmer to commit suicide in order to make a political point. No wonder the media ignored it. Farmer suicides are occurring in India, but because of economic stresses caused by the splitting of land into smaller parcels, increasing costs of water and dowry inflation. In fact Bt cotton has been quite successful for small farmers significantly increasing yields and returns. http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=290672

Love to put more zest into this conversation.
Any takers? Here is something of interest to ponder over, according to ISIS the FAO is Promoting organic growing.How about that!
see here for the article with links included:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FAOPromotesOrganicAgriculture.php

So what is wrong with organic agriculture?

Instead of posting from I-SIS, you might have linked to the FAO, where you get their view on the sector, not what somebody else says about them. ftp://ftp.fao.org/paia/organicag/CFS-special-forum.pdf

What is it Agro, that you so dislike about what I-sis writes?
It is their profession after all to keep the finger on the pulse and to let interested people know what goes on? What ordinary persons like myself could afford to pay for scientific reports which would cost up to $35 each or more like some of the medical journals?
Let me ask you...why are you so against people seeking knowledge, looking at most of your answers or responses, they do seem to have a negative tinge. As far as organics is concerned,I'm all for it the more widespread it becomes here the better and I think it would serve you more if you'd help turn around the situation of poor agricultural management here in Australia by promoting Non-GM.

My main problem with I-SIS is that much of the material they write is not intended to inform, but to mislead. In addition, the ideas of the founder Mae-Wan Ho are distinctly odd and out of step with 400 years of scientific discovery. Ho makes discoveries that are not there, adds 2 + 2 to make 11 and totally ignores evidence if they do not fit her ideological agenda.

Burcher's article on the FAO position on organic agriculture and food security seems to be at total odds with what FAO says themselves. I can only conclude that Burcher is sourcing from an entirely different, and possibly, mythical paper.

I am not at all against people seeking knowledge. However, I recognise there is knowledge and then there are fairy stories. I try to steer away from the fairy stories.

Apart from cotton, Australia only has non-GM agriculture. If you want to blame an agricultural system for the "situation of poor agricultural management here in Australia" - you would have to blame non-GM agriculture.