GM deliberation leaks worry gene advisory chairman

The chair of the NSW Agricultural Advisory Council on Gene Technology, Prof Tim Reeves, has expressed concern that anti-GM representatives on the council have breached its confidentiality code by claiming that the council had already decided to recommend a large-scale trial planting of genetically modified canola in NSW.

Reeves' comments came after a report in The Sydney Morning Herald published quotes by Jo Immig, a Nature Conservation Council representative on the NSW advisory council.

Immig told the paper that the council was "being pressured to make a decision" that will allow the two companies that have applied jointly to conduct the trial -- Bayer CropScience and Monsanto Australia -- to sow the trial crop of GM herbicide-tolerant canola in time for the 2004 season.

The council was established to advise the NSW agriculture minister, Ian McDonald, on applications to vary the conditions of the current NSW moratorium on GM crops.

It met last week to review the Monsanto-Bayer proposal for the trial, after seeking information on what Reeves described as "30 to 40 issues that needed to be resolved" in relation to the proposed trial.

Bayer and Monsanto have applied to plant several thousand hectares of GMHT canola varieties, under secure containment, to test whether the GM crop can be grown, harvested, stored and transported without cross-contaminating conventional, non-GM canola, and then sold overseas.

The advisory council's membership includes representatives of the NSW Farmers Association, CSIRO, the NSW Department of Agriculture, the Australian Wheat Board, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Avcare, and the two anti-GM NGOs - the Network of Concerned Farmers and the Conservation Council of NSW.

Immig told the Herald that the majority of council members "would approve anything Monsanto and Bayer placed before them... They have already made up their minds that genetically engineered canola is inevitable despite the widespread and significant concerns expressed by farmers and the community."

NSW canola grower Juliet McFarlane, who represents the anti-GM organisation the Network of Concerned Farmers on the NSW advisory council, said it was unacceptable that people on fixed salaries and with no responsibility should be "dictating the risks to farmers".

"We're the ones that borrow the money and take the risks, so it needs to be our decision," McFarlane said.

Immig said she was "not convinced" that questions surrounding possible contamination of traditional canola crops had been answered "None of these serious issues were taken into consideration by the majority of members in their headlong rush to recommend approval of what is essentially a commercial crop of GE canola in violation of the NSW moratorium," she told the Herald.

Reeves expressed his concern that both Immig and McFarlane, in commenting to the media on last week's deliberations, had breached a code of confidentiality agreed by members when the council was established.

He said that while compliance with the code was voluntary, "the council does its business in confidence, and we have a code of conduct on communication, and I'm the only spokesperson on issues to do with the council.

"We have to treat information confidentially because we're only there to advise the minister. That doesn't preclude members expressing the views of their organisations [on GM crops], but the council's actual business should be confidential.

"It's pretty obvious that there are views being raised outside council that involve confidential council business".

Reeves said he personally had an open mind on the Monsanto-Bayer application. "I'm an independent chair," he said. "Even though I have two votes, I've abstained from every vote the council has taken on the application."

Bayer CropScience's General Manager, Crop Science, Susie O'Neill, said the council was still reviewing the joint application, and there had been no formal approval yet.

O'Neill said the proposed trial would be "considerably less" than the 5000 hectares being mooted. The reason that the trial was being sought in NSW was that NSW was Australia's second largest canola producer, after Western Australia.

The federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has already given both Bayer and Monsanto approval to release GMHT canola commercially.

"We hope to get a fair hearing, so we can show that the crop can be grown safely, and to resolve any outstanding issues surrounding coexistence and market access," O'Neill said.

"Opponents of GM crops should have an interest in the trial, because it will answer many of their outstanding questions -- if they're genuinely interested in finding out, rather than driving some other agenda."

Monsanto Australia's communications manager, Mark Buckingham, said the trial was necessary to answer unresolved questions before GMHT canolas could be moved towards normal agricultural practice.

"We need to do something more than plot-scale trials, but these paddock-scale trials would be very tightly managed. There are significant safeguards incorporated in our joint proposal to allow some of those questions to be addressed," he said.