Australian Organic, which owns the Australian Certified Organic logo, is calling for a review of the laws and related codes affecting GM production following the outcome of Australia's first test case.
This week the Western Australian Supreme Court rejected certified organic farmer Steve Marsh's bid for compensation. Marsh attempted to sue his neighbour Michael Baxter for GM contamination on his property in 2010.
The landmark case is the first of its kind in the world, and as such, will make waves worldwide.
However, the court decision does not change the fact that many consumers don’t want to eat foods that contain GM, according to Australian Organic.
The organisation said the decision did, however, highlight the difficulties legislation has in keeping up with new technologies.
Despite some countries accepting adventitious contamination of GM, the international marketplace generally demands organic products to be non GM, particularly our key markets Korea and Japan.
Increasing land buffer zones between properties and changing harvesting practices would help to reduce genetic contamination risks, and underpinning the code of practice for GM growing with legislation would help prevent issues like this happening in future, according to Australian Organic.
“Unfortunately there are two losers in this case. It’s really sad to see two neighbours go to court when there should have been enough precautions in place before crops were even put in the ground,” Chair of Australian Organic Dr Andrew Monk said.
He says Australian Organic will continue to stand by the Australian Certified Organic Standard, which prohibits the use of GM materials.
“Unfortunately GM technology has imposed some significant additional risk management and testing requirements on the organic sector. GM testing has joined the ranks of the pesticide and herbicide tests that we already do,” Monk says.
According to IBISWorld, organic farming is one of the Australian economy’s best performing agricultural industries and due to consumer demand is expected to grow by 50 per cent over the next five years.
Also, the most recent Australian Organic Market Report shows 62 per cent of organic consumers buy organic because it’s non GM.
“It’s not ideological to meet consumer expectations, it’s good business sense,” Monk says.
