The Tasmanian and Australian Greens today called for the state’s moratorium on genetically engineered (GE) food crops to remain in place, saying it is essential to maintain access to national and international markets, and to protect the environment from GE contamination.
Greens Leader Nick McKim MP, who attended and spoke at today’s rally, said the state’s GE free policy position had served Tasmania well, and there has not been any convincing argument put forward to lift the ban.
“Our GE-free Brand and status has served Tasmania well. It is the golden key to national and international markets now and into the future,” Mr McKim said.
“A diverse range of Tasmanian producers including our honey producers, beef exporters, fruit growers and grain producers such as canola, all rely on genuine GE-free credibility to secure premium markets.”
“The market place wants clear, genuine and reliable information when it exercises its purchasing choice. An authentic GE-free brand immediately differentiates Tasmania from our competitors, makes us stand out for the right reasons, and gives our hard-working producers an invaluable head-start.”
“Just this week we saw Tasmanian company Bellamys Organic CEO, Mrs Laura McBain, win three Telstra Tasmanian Business Women’s Awards for her role in expanding that GE-free business into challenging national and international markets, with production up 70 per cent.”
“The risk of genetically engineered material contaminating Tasmanian produce would undermine the decades of work and investment into building this GE-free reputation.”
“Our island status provides us with a natural protection, which our GE-free status value-adds for our agricultural sector. Lifting the current moratorium is to undercut that advantage, and destroy our ability to differentiate in a competitive market place.”
“Once the GE-genie is out of the bottle we cannot put it back,” Mr McKim said.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne, who also attended today’s rally, warned that the Federal Abbott government could also threaten Tasmania’s GE-free brand should it capitulate during current free-trade negotiations.
“Being GE-free gives the Tasmanian brand a strong basis to compete in those high-value, high-quality agricultural markets in which we’ve already made such significant inroads,” Senator Milne said.
“There is a real danger with current free-trade negotiations that Prime Minister Abbott will roll over on dispute resolution clauses that will give companies the power to sue governments over policies which impact their profits.
“This means places like Tasmania which implement a GE ban to protect our brand and because it’s what we want, could be dragged through the courts by big multinationals trying to maintain and expand markets.”
“The Tasmanian government should urgently seek guarantees from Prime Minister Abbott that he won’t go down this road,” Senator Milne said.
The Australian Greens and Tasmanian Greens MPs have made a joint submission to the State’s Review of the current moratorium on genetically engineered food crops.
Download: The GE-Free Dividend to Tasmania, Australian Greens and Tasmanian Greens Joint Submission into the Review of Tasmania’s GMO Moratorium, October 2013:
Oct12_Tasmanias_GE-Free_Status-Greens_Joint_Submission_McKim-Milne_ATTACH.pdf
• Download Gene Ethics’ comments on the Tasmanian GM moratorium policy review:
Gene_Ethics_Tas_GM_Rev_111013.pdf
A further doc will be embedded shortly … and here it is:
http://cdn-src.tasmaniantimes.com.s3.amazonaws.com/No%20Appetite%20for%20Oz%20GM%20Wheat%20Report.pdf
• Kim Booth: Make GE-Free status long-term
• Kim Booth: Date needed for GE-free decision
• Kim Booth: Date needed for GE-free decision
• Nick, in Comments: I was wondering when the starving world furphy would come up. I’m sure others will now jump on, so I want to reply to that. This is the other standard propaganda stunt that comes out when the argument is otherwise looking flimsy – not saying you are doing that, Sarah, but others do.
