AFAA Executive Director Speaks Up for GM Canola

Executive Director of Agrifood Awareness Australia, Paula Fitzgerald, through a media release, expressed her support for GM canola and stressed the several benefits of GM crops in agriculture to address doubt-mongering campaigns of anti-biotech groups.

"There are no doubts about safety. The approved varieties of GM canola were thoroughly assessed by Australia's regulatory bodies nearly a decade ago as ‘safe for human health and the environment'. Safety is the first priority. Why would it be anything other than that? GM crops have been commercially grown, traded, and consumed around the world since 1996 without issue; billions of meals have been made and consumed that contain one or more GM crop ingredients or whole foods; GM crops are a proven and completely legitimate agricultural technology," said Fitzgerald.

Farmers have been choosing GM varieties based on agronomic and economic factors. In only its third year of adoption in Australia, GM canola has been planted by farmers on about 133,300 hectares in New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia.

Read the media release at http://www.afaa.com.au/media/AFAA_No_need_for_Perth_placards_and_protests.pdf.