29 November 2007

Canberra a green island

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Well it looks like Foskey is at it again. Apparently we are going to get inundated with GMO in the ACT now that NSW has opened the flood gates.

{Sarcasm}I wonder if the ‘buffer zone’ includes road blocks to stop people smuggling GMO across the border{/sarcasm}

ACT Greens call for GM crops buffer zone

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I always thought that crossing cockroache genes with apples would be good – it’d make the apples crunchier.

barking toad8:30 am 30 Nov 07

Rats are being used to test GM canola?

Must ask one-knee Heather if it’s still OK to drink rat’s milk!

What idiot said we don’t grow crops in the ACT? Some flat-dwelling hyundai-driving suburbanite? We grow large crops of apples, wine grapes, and olives to mention just a few off the top of my head.

Wheat has been health tested in the general populace over 13000 years as being edible and safe.

GM modified stuff hasn’t even been tested over one generation. And some tests have been abandoned, due to the test rats getting really ill.

Purple monkey dishwasher.

Mmmm…. Tomacco.

Yeah, but 13000 years ago they weren’t trying to insert a Rat’s genes into a tomato to make it redder!

stemp oot durken iilteracey tunc.

Caf,
Most GM foods are engineered to be disease resistance, to reduce the need for pesticides (the more pesticides on corn for example. the less the yeild per Ha). However, there are some crops that have been GM’d as you say, so the pesticides that targets weeds amongst wheat for example can withstand the hammering Rogan and Sparyseed would give them if some moneky was stupiud enough to throw around with gay abandon.

Why has no-one pointed out, that the ACT is not GM free? Uncommon knowledge, but most of the grape vine grafts that are going around these days have been fiddled with at certain levels to guarrantee that they trike with the root stock. And thats before we point the bone at CSIRO.

Incidentally I just had a look at the “Australian Organic Standard“, which is what ACO (apparently Australia’s largest organic farming certifier) certifies to, and it bans GMOs. So I guess it’s not even technically possible. As near as I can tell, organic farming tends to be defined as using only traditional methods, which would rule out genetic engineering.

I’d say they’re lumped together because while technically possible, the market for Organically-grown-but-genetically-modified food is probably close to non-existent. Not to mention that the most widely grown GM food crops are modified for pesticide resistance, hardly an advantage if you’re using “organic farming” methods.

so they’re not mutually exclusive?

‘Organic’ and ‘GM’ are mutually exclusive. (That is, you can have GM foods which have been organically grown.) The two issues are separate, although green groups and activists seem keen on lumping them together.

I agree with sepi’s comment “not for nor against”. In a consumer market such choices should be made available to anyone who may want to purchase a GM food product, however my concern is how would this effect the availability of organically produced food? & how effectively would GM products be regulated?

Maybe you should read the article before going off half-cocked, shauno. The idea is about asking NSW not to plant GM crops within some distance of the ACT border, although she’s lost me somewhat with the reasoning about pesticide-resistant weeds?

How the hell can Canberra be a buffer zone? We don’t grow crops in Canberra and every thing we eat is imported. So well have to either starve or search the land for any food not GM. Fairly hard thing to do these days especially imports.

It might work but at the cost of 10 times your grocery bill and shutting down quiet a few of Canberra’s Restaurants. Yep another great idea from the greens.

barking toad11:42 am 29 Nov 07

My cousins were never genetically modified. I fail to see the relevance.

Maybe the GM corn will do them in.
Pregnant mice that ate it had stillborn or sterile pups.

Maybe the Cane Toads can be genetically modified to eat themselves?

Cane toad – scientific ‘improvement’ introduced to help farmers. Unable to be reversed.

Replace Cane Toad with GM Canola – rinse and repeat.

barking toad11:22 am 29 Nov 07

Buffer zones will work as efficiently as the old lines drawn on the carpet in pubs/clubs to differentiate between smoking/smoke-free areas.

And wtf has GM canola to do with my feral cousins?

So where does the GMO DMZ go, is it going to be in the ACT or in NSW? And how wide does the DMZ have to be?

I think GM food is a massive mistake.

It is very short sighted to allow it to be grown in Australia – and undemocratic – lots of people and farmers don’t want it, but we had no say in the matter.

And once it is here, and turns out to be a massive mistake there is no getting rid of it.

Cane Toads anyone??

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