Matt Gehl in Australia speaking for you?

[malleefarmer]

ssems to me and correct me if im wrong in canada/usa gm crops is all about chem resistance.

were as in australia our gm programmes is more about rust resistance, frost or drought tolerance,black leg tolerance and wheat with more vitamins and minerals etc.

correct me if im wrong.

i find this discussion great both sides of the spectrum.

i know gm status has changed in the eu but was in europe a while back and gm crops come up in discussion about consumer trends and how they wont buy gm products most people i stayed with farmer and non farmer laughed at the idea, they say we buy whatever is cheapest and dont even look at labelling, but here almost a blanket ban now years down the track

[grassfarmer]

Ha, Ha, if only that were true you might have an idea
of the problem.

[ProFarmer]

Organic wheat is well known to be of poorer quality. Check out the organic section of the local Safeway an bunch of spotted blemished rotten organic material... If the world went organic 2 out of every three people would have to be dissposed of because of the lack of food A FACT....

[charliep]

When everyone uses the term GM or
genetically modified, what does everyone
mean? Use of transgenics or the
insertion of a different dna in a plants
genetic material? Biotech in general?
Biotech that is specific to herbicide
tolerance? Agronomic issues? Consumer
traits?

[TOM4CWB]

DearnCharlie,

GM... every thing living on this planet is GM... (Genetically Modified)... EVEN and ESPECIALLY if it is a clone!

For those who say they believe in natural selection.... shooting a silver bullet at a plant... to put DNA from one life form... into another... does not count as nearly as scary as bombarding DNA with radiation... to make new plants as is done with mutigenisis.

[Hopperbin]

Yes mallie most gm grain crops have been developed for chemical resistance. And according to us farmers we have adopted the Round up and Liberty traits as we truely believe that these chemicals are much safer than the ones we used in the past. Canola is our main gm crop and yield increase is now also part of it. In Australia your ****seed crops have a very high rate of blackleg resistance which is why you could never grow our canola in the first place. Perhaps that is now changed, was 25 years ago since I was there.

[grassfarmer]

Mallee, my response was to wd9 not you, I see we
posted at the same time.

"If the world went organic 2 out of every three
people would have to be dissposed of because of
the lack of food A FACT...."
A fact where? in your mind? What nonsense - when
70% of the worlds population is fed outwith the
industrial food system how would going organic on
the other 30% reduce the world food supply by
2/3rds

[Hopperbin]

Are you saying we have 30 percent surplus food?

[malleefarmer]

no problems grassfarmer

[grassfarmer]

Hopperbin, No - read the post again.

[Hopperbin]

Got it, but I am guessing you suggest we not supply the bio fuel market. As a grain producer of the past and preseant we really have not made much profit if any selling to you cattle guys. Also I dissagree with your view of industrial ag.

[Hopperbin]

actually I got confused when you said outwith you meant to say without.

[Hopperbin]

So we both needed to re read your post

[grassfarmer]

No, I didn't use the wrong word - "outwith" or
"without" are interchangeable in the context. I didn't
say or imply anything about bio-fuels in the thread,
thats a different and separate issue.

[gustgd]

Mallee your right many people do equate GM with herbicide resistance.

Although as I understand in the past it was because canola was easy to change to use Roundup on. It was a non selective herbicide with a history of use over millions of acres with zero side effects. (that part still holds true.)

Now in cereals it's many of the same traits that we see in other crops. Tolerance to disease, insect resistance, frost/drought tolerance. All traits to improve yield stability.

I know that GM fusarium tolerant wheat is sitting on a shelf, waiting for market acceptance. Imagine how much less fungicide would be spayed and how much time people would have.


Whomever made the comment above about not growing food for animals missed the point.
While human quality is almost always the target, we need a strong vibrant animal sector for the grain that does not make spec.