Agriculture industry faces challenge to sway views on GM
The agriculture sector needs to sell the environmental, social and economic benefits of genetically-modied crops to the wide community, says University of Florida professor Kevin Folta.
South Australia’s moratorium on growing genetically-modified crops has far-reaching effects beyond the state, according to University of Florida Professor Kevin Folta.
Prof Folta is visiting Australia for Growing SA — the annual conference of South Australia’s grains and livestock industries — that is being held at Hahndorf tomorrow.
It is a timely visit, following the state government’s plan to lift the moratorium on growing GM crops in SA — with the exception of Kangaroo Island — announced last week.
“When a place like South Australia declares a moratorium on growing GM crops, decision-makers in countries like Uganda, Kenya or Nigeria tend to say ‘if it’s not good enough for them, why is it good enough for us?’,” Prof Folta said.
“The moratorium doesn’t just affect SA farmers, the effect is worldwide.”
Prof Folta said it was not just South Australia sending a negative message about GMs, with a number of European nations having total or partial bans on the technology, despite significant tonnages of GM products being imported.
“Europe is going into the dark ages, they’re happy to import GM products but for their researchers, there’s no question they’ve had major setbacks,” he said.
Prof Folta said there were exciting developments in the GM space including reversing HIV in mice and gene editing fixing the mutated gene responsible for sickle cell disease.
“I think this is where we’ll make a break through (in changing people’s opinions) when these stories start to touch our friends, families and neighbours,” he said.
“People are comfortable with technology, but they don’t trust companies in the GM sector.”
Prof Folta said gene editing offered great potential to bring new products to market.
“Through gene editing we can get a crop to market in a few years, rather than a decade,” he said.
“There’s probably 100 crops on the way through the use of this technology, including a soy bean with a healthier oil.
“We have unprecedented power to change DNA and create new lines but we need to create change to ensure there’s unlimited pipelines. The biggest bottleneck isn’t technology, but the social licence to use the innovation.”
Prof Folta said as scientists and farmers were generally trusted by the wider community, they had a good platform to spread a positive message about GMs.
“About 70 per cent of people are now getting their information and news from social media, it’s a conversation we have to be part of,” he said.
Another guest speaker at Growing SA is Bayer medical science outreach lead Dr Eliza Dunn, who said with the world’s population relying on so few people to feed them, the use of technology was vital to food security.
“In the United States, only 2 per cent of the population are farming, we’ve never had such a low percentage in our history,” she said.
Dr Dunn believes GM technology offers significant opportunities to Australian agriculture.
“Australia could be a real centre for innovation and set an example for the rest of the world,” she said.
“Australia has deep ties to the US, Europe and Asia so it’s in good position to set an example.”
Dr Dunn is concerned about moves against science, such as the anti-vaccine movement, as well as the sentiment in Europe against leading agricultural technology, particularly with glyphosate being banned in some European countries.
“I am genuinely worried about Europe because I believe they are giving away their food security,” she said.