Being free of genetically modified (GM) material is one of the top five reasons consumers buy organic food and drink.
Sixty-two per cent of consumers surveyed for the Australian Organic Market Report 2012 buy organic because it’s free of GM. That alone is a pretty big incentive for the organic sector to continue to prohibit it.
Both the national and the Australian Certified Organic standards – the rulebook for organic certification – don’t allow use of genetically modified material during any stage of production.
It’s a precautionary principle for environment and health reasons and because consumers don’t want it. The organic industry has come under criticism for having zero tolerance; critics call it unreasonable and unrealistic, particularly after a Western Australian farmer lost certification on part of his property after it was contaminated by a neighbouring farm growing GM crops.
As far as the organic industry is concerned, however, there is not enough evidence showing GM poses no health risks in the long term. Instead, there is an increasing body of evidence showing it’s unsafe.
The most recent was a Flinders University study into the effect of GMOs on pig organs. It found that female pigs fed GM corn and soy developed a uterus 25 per cent heavier than the pigs not fed GM, and the pigs fed GM food had much higher levels of severe stomach inflammation.
Long-time anti-GM campaigner Scott Kinnear from the Safe Food Foundation says in the absence of government funding for research, more independent scientists are studying the long-term health effects of GM.
“Independent testing is showing that GM causes harm, which is concerning, and there’s increasing disquiet about GM food in the United States,” he says.
The
crowds at recent anti-GM rallies in cities and towns around Australia
were also unprecedented in size.
“It’s not an issue that
people have forgotten about; on the contrary it’s gaining a lot
more attention in Australia and around the world,” Kinnear says.
He advises food and drink manufacturers who want to avoid GM material to be vigilant about using products from the US (soy and corn in particular) and canola and cotton seed products from Australia. These products can also be sold as additives like vitamins.
He also encourages manufacturers to have a policy position on GM.
The Australian organic industry’s staunch stance on GM isn’t mirrored in the European Union and the US. In recent years, those territories changed their standards to accommodate unintentional low levels of GM contamination, providing the producer or manufacturer can show they did all they could to prevent it.
Those making decisions about standards in Australia accept that they might have to reconsider their zero tolerance in years to come. Australian Organic’s standards convenor, Owen Gwilliam, however, strongly opposes the technology.
“GM is not necessary, it’s not needed,” he says. “We have all the tools we need to produce good quality food. It is another Band-Aid solution that’s been forced upon us by the agrichemical and biotech companies that have a lot of might.
“We predicted when the technology was released that GM contamination was an area we would have to look at. The organic industry knew contamination may become an issue – volunteer plants grow on edges of roads from seed blown off trucks, and cross pollination occurs – so to a certain extent it was expected,” he says.
“As has occurred in the US and Europe, we may have to in the future consider allowing a low level of unavoidable GM materials, however I do not foresee any circumstances where we would allow intentional use of GM in organic production.”
The organic industry’s concerns about GM are not restricted to human and animal health – there are also environmental health considerations. Biodiversity is one of the pillars of the organic standards. The more natural biodiversity on a farm the healthier it is.
There is enough doubt about whether GM plants pass their herbicidal and insect-resistant qualities to wild plants, and the effect of that on insects that feed on them, for the organic industry to err on the side of caution.
These days, it’s difficult to guarantee a product is GM-free without testing. This presents a challenge for manufacturers wanting to proclaim their product as GM-free, as this can be a complex and expensive process.
About the author: Kathy Cogo is the media spokesperson for Australian Organic, an organisation that promotes organic and educates the public about the benefits of organic food and fibre. It also owns the country’s largest organic certifying brand – Australian Certified Organic.
