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Alert over secret GM seed in Oz imports (4/12/2006)

1.Alert over secret GM seed in imports
2.Canadian canola a slap in the face for Australian farmers 3.Contamination warning as GE grain arrives

EXTRACT: the nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton said there was a risk that the canola oil could contain some protein, and there was no scientific evidence that genetically engineered food was safe to eat.

"No one has been monitoring if there is a problem [with GE foods] … we have no way of knowing," she said.
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1.Alert over secret GM seed in imports
Wendy Frew Environment Reporter
Sidney Morning Herald, December 5 2006
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/alert-over-secret-gm-seed-in-imports/2006/12/04/1165080877902.html

GENETICALLY engineered Canadian canola is being imported into Australia but the chances are no one will tell you if it ends up in your margarine or mayonnaise.

The multinational grain trader Cargill said it had imported canola seed because of a sharp drop in Australian canola production caused by the drought.

Greenpeace has accused Cargill of undercutting Australian farmers with cheap imports that consumers do not want. "Polls consistently show that Australian consumers don't want to eat GE food, yet food producers are trying to sneak GE canola into the food chain," said a Greenpeace campaigner, Louise Sales.

"The canola will make its way, unwanted and unlabelled, into products such as margarine and canola oil, and into animal feed used for the poultry and dairy industries."

Genetically engineered foods have ingredients that have been modified by gene technology. Cotton is the sole genetically engineered crop grown in Australia, and state governments have banned commercial production of genetically modified canola until 2008. However, there is nothing preventing food producers using oil extracted from the Canadian seed. Nor is there any legal requirement for them to inform customers because the genetically engineered material attaches itself to the meal in the seed and not to the oil, according to Foods Standards Australia New Zealand. However, the meal could be fed to animals raised for human consumption.

Four of Australia's main users of canola oil, Goodman Fielder, Unilever, Woolworths and McDonald's, said they had not bought any of the shipment. Coles Myer declined to comment.

Goodman Fielder and Unilever said they had not bought any of the Canadian canola because they believed Australian consumers would reject it. However, Unilever said that if the drought continued, next year's canola crop would also be much smaller than usual, and "everybody who uses canola oil will be under pressure" to buy genetically modified seed.

Cargill would not say who had bought the seed. It rejected Greenpeace's claim there was enough Australian-grown canola to supply the domestic market. A Cargill spokesman, Robert Green, said the genetically modified seed was safe to eat, evidenced by its decade-long use in North America.

However, the nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton said there was a risk that the canola oil could contain some protein, and there was no scientific evidence that genetically engineered food was safe to eat.

"No one has been monitoring if there is a problem [with GE foods] … we have no way of knowing," she said.
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2.Canadian canola a slap in the face for Australian farmers: Greenpeace
ABC, 04/12/2006
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2006/s1803551.htm

Greenpeace says a shipment of Canadian canola which arrived in Newcastle yesterday is a slap in the face for Australian farmers.

The environmental group is appealing to the major supermarkets and food processors not to use the genetically modified (GM) canola, imported by grains trader Cargill.

Spokeswoman Louise Sales says consumers do not want to eat GM foods and the big food chains should respect their wishes.

"[We need] to build consumer pressure to make companies like Woolworths and Coles refuse to take the shipment," she said.

"If you look at the figures and the predicted canola crops [it is] 400,000 tonnes and domestic demand is only 100,000 to 115,000 tonnes, so we've got ample supplies to meet domestic demand."

The Oilseeds Federation has been unavailable for comment.
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3.Contamination warning as GE grain arrives
ABC, December 4 2006
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1803194.htm

Greenpeace says Australian crops could be at risk now the first imported shipment of genetically engineered (GE) canola has arrived in Newcastle on the New South Wales central coast.

Although the Federal Government has backed a trial of genetically engineered canola, the states have declared a moratorium on GE food.

Greenpeace's genetic engineering campaigner Lousie Sales says the shipment could threaten the GE-free status that has helped Australian farmers get good prices for their canola overseas.

She says there is a serious risk of contamination from the shipment.

"That's what we've seen from Japan, where Japan's imported canola from Canada," she said.

"We've seen widespread contamination along ports and along major transport routes where GE canola's basically grown wild by the side of the road and we're concerned that there's going to be a contamination risk in Australia and Australia's GE-free status will be at risk."

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