New joint initiative to promote biotech and GM in agriculture

A new industry group, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA) has been formed to promote and encourage debate on the use of biotechnology and gene technology in agriculture in Australia.

The bodies collaborating to form the council are AusBiotech, CropLife Australia, Grains Research and Development Corporation and the National Farmers’ Federation.

The council will be chaired by Claude Gauchat, who is Managing Director of direct2, a company that advises on reputation management. He is also a non-executive Director at the Arts & Health Foundation, a board member at Science & Technology Australia, and Board Director at ChemCert Limited.

He was also formerly non-executive Chairman of Agrifood Awareness Australia Limited, another organisation tasked with promoting gene technology in agriculture.

“As the world’s farming sector seeks to double production to meet the food and nutritional requirements of the growing global population, we have a moral imperative to encourage and develop all potential tools and technologies that will aid farmers in producing more with less, sustainably,” said Gauchat in a statement.

Dr Anna Lavelle, CEO of AusBiotech, has been appointed a non-executive Director of ABCA.

“Biotechnology provides benefits to both farmers and consumers and important improvements are helping farmers to protect their crops from pests, diseases and droughts to provide consumers with increased yields which help to ensure a plentiful and low cost supply of food,” she said.

“Biotechnology innovations ensure that Australian farmers can supply food, while reducing the environmental foot print of agriculture through reduced use of pesticides and other environmental contaminants.”

ABCA is formed at a time when the use of biotechnology and genetic modification are still controversial, with Greenpeace last year destroying a CSIRO research crop of GM wheat, an action that was widely criticised by the scientific community.

Both genetically modified cotton and canola are grown in Australia, and many more imported foods incorporate GM ingredients, such as soybean and corn.

Currently the government Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) conducts a risk analysis of any GM crops to be grown in Australia, and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) assesses GM food that will be sold here.

FSANZ has yet to reject any applications for the sale of GM foods.