Under GMpressure

By Kath Gannaway
RADIO celebrity and Upper Yarra resident Tracy Bartram has thrown her weight behind campaigning Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato and the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
They were signatories to a high-profile advertisement in The Australian newspaper which compared GM crops to the cane toad.
“My constituents are telling me to keep Victoria GM-free and that is what I will continue to fight for,” Ms Lobato said last week.
The more than 100 signatories called on the State and Federal Governments to extend the GE ban for at least five years.
“While other countries are turning their back on GE crops, Australia is opening its doors,” a statement in the advertisement said.
With the moratorium on the growing of genetically modified canola set to expire at the end of the month, Ms Lobato said she is being inundated with concerned constituents who want the state to remain GM-free.
“With the end of the moratorium fast-approaching, residents and retailers alike are contacting me wanting to take action to stop the introduction of GM canola,” she said.
“Signs are popping up in shops and at houses all over my electorate,” she said.
Ms Lobato’s Berwick office is among them.
“People from all walks of life, from rural areas and suburbs, farmers and families, parents and grandparents, are all expressing their deep concern about GM.
“Many have taken the time to undertake their own investigations and, like me, consider the introduction of GM premature given that there are no independent scientific studies showing either its efficacy or safety.
Ms Lobato labelled GM as a giant experiment and said Victorians do not want to be the guinea pigs when adverse effects from growing GM are already showing up overseas.
She said Canadian farmers visiting the Victorian Parliament last week issued a warning to their Australian peers and to food manufacturers and retailers that the GM path is one of economic loss and agricultural disaster.
“These farmers have lived through GM experimentation in their own country and want to warn Australian farmers of the economic and financial losses they have encountered,” Ms Lobato said.
“Similar disaster will be faced by local farmers if Victoria grows GM crops,” she warned.
“All exports to the lucrative European markets will be shut off.
“The problems of weed control will accelerate as herbicide tolerant genes take hold, and that is before the legal nightmares from contamination take hold.”