BASF leaves Germany over GMO

[gustgd]

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120117-40163.html

[bucket]

Great news. Europe or someone will starve again in the future. Better yet lets leave millions of acres in Africa to not produce anything. Fantastic.

Job security for western canadian farmers at its best.

The people that chased them out are really quite stupid.

[gustgd]

If Canada's regulatory house were in order those 140 jobs could have been in Saskatoon.

[Daylate]

Was at agritechnica in Hanover this year and visited friends that farm there and it was less contreversal talking about Hitler than it was GMO crops. They claim glyphosate contaminates meat as we. They get 90bu./ac canola as it is so its probably good for us that they are so against GMO's.

[grassfarmer]

Fair enough - Hitler isn't much of a threat now this
GMO crap is.

[malleefarmer]

read all the pros and cons of gmo still sitting on the fence.

but seems most of the hysteria is mostly due to chemically tolerant crops.

what about the breeding of drought tolerant crops,rust resistant crops more nutritional crops ie more goodness per kernel seems to me all this can be sped up by gmo breeding.

weve had a fair few canadians speaking in oz over the years telling us how canadian agriculture has been ruined by gmo canola,land rendered useless,all canadian canola basically given away because it contaminated etc etc, most of the seem to have as much space between there ears as paris hilton and most are sceptical of there claims.
i went to a forum for a bit of a lark and the speaker was a dead set drongo never had any basis to his argument and never replied to questions asked gave a stock standard answer austalia will be ruined and lose all sales if it goes down gmo line.

but again im not sure i would use them as i can see no advantage but i wouldnt be upset if my nieghbour did

[ProFarmer]

What Canadians are telling you what??? The canola industry in canada is the life blood of western canada and gmo canola has allowed us to produce clean weed free and healthy crops. The organic farmers who are mostly wingnuts and back to the bush dreamers are the ones produceing this info. If the world were to have to eat what these producers produce we would have world wide starvation because of the low production levels, only one medicocure crop every two to three years. Most rely on cultivation to controll weeds and this burns up major amounts of energy compared to zero till crops from the rest of us. Organic wheat is usually of very low protein and yield. A canola crop is impossible with organic agiculture just because of the weed pressure...

[cpallett]

"Europeans have largely accepted genetic engineering for the production of medicines, but concern rises when modified genetic organisms leave the laboratory and mix with conventional foodstuffs.

“We do not want these plants to get into the fields because they cannot be controlled,” said Dirk Zimmermann, biologist at environmental group Greenpeace."

Isn't that exactly what happened with Triffid? It would appear that some GMO concerns, particularly the financial ones, are valid.

On the other hand, the courts in Saskatchewan threw out a class action against Monsanto over GM canola for a number of reasons, but particularly because the organic canola farmers could not demonstrate any economic losses from "genetic drift".

Whether the science on GMOs reveals any unforeseen threats in the future is anybody's guess. The current science indicates that the potential for good far outweighs the potential for bad.

However, the economic risks are real.

[charliep]

to highlight, the issue with triffid is not GMO as such but rather, the fact the genetic event behind triffid was never registered. Europe does allow GMO imports (read soybeans/soybean meal) and GMO material as an adventious presense (read corn dust in soybeans) provided the genetic events have been evaluated by the European Food Safety Agency and through their political process of consultation.

The cost of registering triffid 10 to 15 years was considered I suspect prohibative and had risk not making it through - likely would be approved today at least as adventitious presense.

Not a lawyer but interest is always in the definition of zero (how many zeros after the decimal) and analysis of risk (both real and percieved).

I would also note the Europe definition of GMO almost exclusively applies to transgenics/gene insertion but that Europe is very active in other forms of bio-tech including mutagenics

[charliep]

mallefarmer

On the Aussie front, I understand your plant breeding programs are as active on using biotechnology in plant breeding. Just curious if Aussie farmers have access to herbicide tolerance/other attributes that may may not be based on transgenics (insertion of genes) but rather mutagenics (maniputlation of the plants own genes through various techniques). Transgenic technology in terms of canola would be round up ready (know the old term but what I think of) and liberty link. Mutagenic would be clearfield canola. The people will correct me if I am wrong in my terms.

With gene mapping and other technologies, we are headed into some interesting times.