Australian Senators Express Support for GM Crops

Australian federal senators expressed their support for the motion stating that GM is an environmentally friendly farming technology supported by scientific rigor. The motion was passed on August 10, 2015, during the Crawford Fund's annual conference, which was focused on sustainable intensification and improved food security. During the conference, agricultural biotechnology was highlighted as one of the tools that can be used to achieve food security.

The motion was raised by influential senators namely, David Leyonhjelm, Bob Day, and Dio Wang. Sen. Leyonhjelm stressed that GM crops play an important role in feeding a growing global population by producing foods with improved nutritional value; especially in Asia. "We won't be able to feed the world and allow everyone in poor countries to enjoy the same standards of living that we enjoy if we don't develop and adopt new technologies like GM crops… I think opposition to GM crops amounts to telling poor people in developing countries ‘you can't live as well as we do'," he said.

For more details, read the article from Genetic Literacy Project.