Australian Organic Farmer GM contamination court case 10th Feburary

Discussion in 'YouTube Digest' started by dagsgarrett, Jan 23, 2014.

  1. Load of Bullion

    Load of Bullion Well-Known Member

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    Relevance: Is Steve Marsh taking the NASAA to court?. This would be a separate court case!.

    I ask the question.
     
  2. leo25

    leo25 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    In my backyard. All the old Italians are going to be super rich selling their own produce :D

    1oz of silver for 5 tomatoes and if you're lucky ill give you some free dried oregano
     
  3. Load of Bullion

    Load of Bullion Well-Known Member

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    Nice offer, but it does not answer my question in the context of the future/macro farming and the spread of GMOs.
    I think the trend is in already as per the Steve marsh case and others. I realise we can't predict the future exactly..but the trend.
     
  4. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    I was trying to make two points, obviously I did shit job though.

    1. NASAA places the onus on the operator to protect his crop, so Baxter's solicitors will probably argue it is Marsh's fault.
    2. He may have recourse for action against NASAA, but they'll probably tell him to stick it.

    The PGA is actually saying Marsh should be suing NASAA for breaching their own guidelines not his neighbour.
     
  5. markcoinoz

    markcoinoz Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    The issue at hand is about choice.

    That is where I draw the line in the sand.

    Both sides can debate the pros and cons all they like.

    However, Steve's livelihood of organic farming has been disrupted because Monsanto
    or should I say the farmer across the road did not take protective measures to ensure
    that no GM Seed would invade his neighbour's property which is Steve's right. Just because the
    GM Grower says "Oh the wind did it" does not detract from his duty of care to his neighbour.

    I can think of many similar cases where big businesses have decimated the landscape and affected
    local farmers and industries through contamination of the land and water. Mining - Fracking - Puipmills
    just to name a few.

    I don't agree with GM Food. However, if it is to be carried out, it should be done indoors where it does
    not contaminate outdoor foodbowls that want to continue organic farming without the concern of contamination.

    Remember seeing a video a while ago of these Mexican farmers in their village who had been planting and growing corn
    for hundreds of years. They were renowned for the many variations in colour and quality of their corn. One day a couple
    of them noticed a completely different strain growing within their crops. It turned out to be GM Corn. How it got there they
    are unsure. Point being, every farmer should have their rights protected of not having their crops infected by GM.

    To do that would mean never allowing GM crops to grow outdoors.

    I know, it will never happen while Corporations govern the planet.
     
  6. Load of Bullion

    Load of Bullion Well-Known Member

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    Do you agree with this?.
     
  7. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    Good question.

    Mmmmmmmm......... if I was him I'd give it some thought, in fact I think he may have better luck suing NASAA than his neighbour.
     
  8. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    From a free market perspective if there is a demand for certified organic, and it is profitable then the demand will be met. It may be expensive though. Coles or Woolies will come to the party eventually.

    If you don't want certified organic then there is always chemical free, pretty much the same just without the certification process. With the number of lifestylers and hobby farmers around, this form of produce will always be on hand.
     
  9. Load of Bullion

    Load of Bullion Well-Known Member

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    Steve Marsh could have theoretically taken the NASAA to court prior to his land being compromised by his neighbours crop, if he had an issue with the regulations he worked to gain compliance with.
    The PGA wants the NASAA to raise the bar..and the bar will eventually be irrelevant due to the rising levels of disruption. It would be interesting to get the PGA's advice on how high the bar should be raised.

    So GMO growers are not responsible for disrupting other farmers crops. I find it hard to see a future or practical choice for larger scale non-GMO growers in the future. GMO is the future.
     
  10. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    I think the organic growers would do well to ensure any of their funds in their umbrella organisations are used to raise awareness of organic produce, keep small scale farmers in business and to help reduce the retail cost of such products (by securing cheaper transport contracts etc). Hopefully they are not given to groups such as Safe Food Organisation to fight GMOs.

    For example, the airline industry spends its marketing funds on promoting air transport, not bashing train or road transport.

    Do what you guys do well, keep out of the political bunfight.
     
  11. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    @LOB, GMO is not the future, it is a part of the future.

    Market demand will dictate the prevalence of GM cropping or stocking. There will always be a demand for non-GMO.
     
  12. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    I wouldn't know, all I know is that certified organic farmers are responsible for ensuring their farms are contamination free, if they wish to retain NASAA Certification. There are guidelines for GMO farmers, apparently Mr Baxter was within the guidelines.
     
  13. Load of Bullion

    Load of Bullion Well-Known Member

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    I don't see how this is practically possible. What is the point of complying with 'organic compliances' when a neighbour can simply plant a GMO crop and wipe you out.
    Too much risk for farmers, IMO. I don't see how macro sized non-GMO crops are going to be viable.I'm thinking further down the track in the decades to come. This is going to be interesting to watch.
     
  14. leo25

    leo25 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Though i was using some playful words, i was also being serious.

    The sad reality is the only way you can grow organic in the future is in small scale backyard farms. That way you can have more control of your crop without all the legal risk.
    I'm not happy about it, but I'm not happy with a lot of things in this world.

    I guess the pros of this is it will create a market place for small backyard farms and i think there will be a lot of people that will be very happy to fill the need, more so when people are happy to play the extra cost to have organic. We are already seeing this today.

    In a way its a nice idea that people start to buy only locally produced foods and know where the food you buy actually comes from. This also means you can only get whats in season, but I'm happy with that.
     
  15. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    @dags, here's some very useful information about GMO from a "Nature" magazine special.

    http://www.nature.com/news/specials/gmcrops/index.html

    A couple of interesting tidbits:

    The focus of genetic modification is turning more toward modifying the genetic structure the organism already possesses rather than introducing genetic code from another organism.

    Public acceptance of GMO is not likely to happen until genetic research is taken out of the industry laboratory. What that means is that the public as a whole are sceptical of research conducted by companies whose prime motive obviously is profit.

    There's lots more too, makes good reading.

    Unfortunately some of it is subscription only.
     
  16. 2ds

    2ds New Member

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    my statement about gm food being dangerous isn't based on scientific studies, it's based on risk management. nor am I saying there is anything particularly dangerous about any existing gm crop.

    What I was trying to get at is that people are changing shit they don't understand ( any basic genetics article will tell you we still don't know exactly how dna works) and feeding it into a point in the food chain where it will have maximum spread.

    If you start engineering people instead, who are at the top, you don't have to worry as much about widespread contamination that could possible poison your source of food.

    Also on another point, cancer rates aren't really rising, it's just that nothing else is killing people anymore
     
  17. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    I think that most of the reason that people don't trust GM crops is because of Monsanto and their vicious corporate tactics, their intimidations of farmers who have had their crops compromised, the obvious corporate greed of Terminator technology, the stories true or false coming from India of mass farmer suicides, the stories of Monsanto agents travelling to Mexico to scatter GM corn into farmers fields there and the astonishing appointment for Michael Taylor to the head of the FDA - a former Monsanto executive, lobbyist and lawyer who is now leading the ban on labelling of foods as containing GM products. As Deputy Commissioner of Foods there is a glaring conflict of interest here. Finally as the only published research that anyone can find on the safety of Roundup Ready crops comes from Monsanto there is a high level of distrust in this aggressive American multinational corporation.

    No doubt some direct laboratory tampering of food DNA will be beneficial and safe but I prefer to do what I can to avoid anything from the laboratories of Monsanto.
     
  18. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    The "Nature" magazine link I posted has an article on those stories about Mexico and India.
     
  19. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Shiney I think that this comment I found at the bottom of the Nature article that you posted sums things up quite well:


     
  20. mmm....shiney!

    mmm....shiney! Administrator Staff Member Silver Stacker

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    Agree. It's muddying the waters and preventing accurate information from reaching consumers. Add to the mix the various ant-GM lobby groups like the one in the video dagsgarret linked to and it becomes a real effort to wade through the lies and myths.
     

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