What next with GM canola?

By Catherine Clifford
Monday, 07/01/2008
As Australia's canola farmers ready themselves for the New Year, they will have to decide for the first time whether they'll be sowing a genetically-modified crop in Victoria or New South Wales in 2008.While moratoria in those states have been lifted, and other state governments are still debating whether the GM canola ban should stay or go, what does it all mean for Australian growers contemplating switching from their conventional varieties?Genetically-modified canola was introduced into Canada in 1996 under a co-existence plan. It was decided from the outset there would be no segregation of the GM product from conventionally-grown canola.JoAnne Buth is the president of the Canola Council of Canada. She says it's been a successful decade for GM in the Northern Hemisphere."Right now, GM canola takes up about 85 per cent of the acres across western Canada and last year we produced nearly nine million tonnes, of which 85 per cent was GM canola," she says.With the introduction in NSW and Victoria of GM canola varieties, comes the introduction of the Technology Use Agreement, or TUA.This is a legally-binding document that many of the biotech companies ask growers to sign when they venture into their local seed supplier to pick up their genetically-modified seed.Spokeswoman for Monsanto Canada, Trish Jordan, says there's a simple reason why growers will be asked to sign such an agreement."It takes a significant amount of money to bring this technology to market, anywhere from $50-million to $100-million and five to 10 years to bring a product from conception through to commercialisation," she says."So obviously we're going to charge for that technology and the money is re-invested in the next of wave of technologies available to growers," says Ms Jordan.The basic terms and conditions contained in Monsanto Canada's TUA are that the grower will pay for the technology, the grower won't save and re-use Monsanto's GM seed the following year, and that if the grower breaches these terms and conditions Monsanto can exercise its legal right to pursue the grower through the courts.One Canadian grower who knows all about Monsanto's TUA contract, and what happens if you are in breach of it, is conventional canola grower, Percy Schmeiser, from the Saskatchewan prairies. He fought Monsanto for more than six years after they commenced legal proceedings against him claiming he had infringed patent when Monsanto's GM seed turned up in his conventional canola crop."In 1998 our canola crop was contaminated by Monsanto's GM canola [and] they laid a lawsuit against me because they said I was using their seed even though it was produced on my land," he says."The judge ruled no matter what the level of contamination, it can be one per cent or two per cent or whatever, if that happens you no longer own your seeds or plants [and] they belong to Monsanto and that was a startling decision by the courts," says Mr Schmeiser.Anti-GM proponent and vice-president of the National Farmers' Union of Canada, Terry Boehm, has issued his own warning to potential Australian GM canola growers, suggesting they will be hit in the pocket if they go down the GM path."We've seen a tremendous escalation in the price of seed," he says."Now, Canadian farmers are spending about CAD$30 to CAD$35 [per acre] just for seed alone, whereas in the past with conventional varieties where farmers were able to save and re-use their own seed they might spend CAD$2 to CAD$5 an acre to plant that," says Mr Boehm.