www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The first genetically modified wheat crop in Victoria's history could be
growing within six months, December 2006 by Peter Ker.

The Victorian Government has applied to a Federal Government regulator for
permission to grow trial crops of drought-tolerant GM wheat.

If the application is approved, as critics expect, by the Gene Technology
Regulator within the Federal Government's Department of Health and Ageing,
two crops of the GM wheat would be grown in Horsham and Mildura.

The State Government has requested permission to run the trial from next May
until March 2008, but a spokesman for the Gene Technology Regulator said
that a decision could be made as late as June 20 next year.

Craig Rowston, spokesman for Victorian Agriculture Minister Joe Helper, said
the Government had imposed a moratorium on the commercial release of GM
canola, but allowed small-scale research and development into GM crops.

Under the Victorian proposal, up to 30 lines of GM wheat would be grown in a
maximum area of 0.225 hectares.

All states except Queensland and the Northern Territory have imposed some
form of moratorium on GM crops, citing environment, food safety and
marketing concerns.

Victoria's moratorium on commercial canola crops runs until 2008, with
exceptions only for field trials.

Approvals for GM wheat trials in Australia have been granted only six times,
and only twice since the present regulations were introduced in 2001.

The six trials took place in Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia.
There has been no previous GM wheat trial in Victoria.

"There has been other GM research in crops (in Victoria) but this is the
first time for wheat," Mr Rowston said.

A spokesman for the federal regulator said a risk assessment and risk
management plan would now be prepared for the Victorian proposal.

He said that if approved, the GM wheat trial crops would be surrounded by
set boundaries, pollen traps and "other containment measures".

Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps said he expected that the trial would be
approved. However, it was "most likely to be a dead end and a waste of
money".

"Drought tolerance is a multi-genic trait, none of them are likely to work,"
he said.

Mr Phelps said that Victorians would be better served by the State
Government investing money in higher priority agricultural problems such as
salinity and soil loss.

"There are already, from traditional breeding, drought-tolerant lines of
most of our major grain and oil seed crops, so genetic engineering is really
a sideshow," Mr Phelps said.

Earlier this year, a group of farm and food industry leaders, chaired by
former National Farmers Federation president Peter Corish, called for states
to end their bans on commercial GM crops, warning that Australian farmers
were being left behind by developments overseas.

The Federal Government has said that the bans on commercial crops were
restricting the expansion of agricultural production, but that it had no
power to over-ride the states on the issue.

[www.theage.com.au]

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