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Try GMOs, organic farmers told
16 Oct 2003
CSIRO Plant Industry's deputy chief Dr Nigel Scott told a recent conference of organic farmers that they should embrace genetically modified organisms as a way to grow better crops without chemicals. Genetic manipulation will continue to be the key to future crop management techniques, he said.
Dr Scott said he was aware that GMOs are unacceptable in many ways to organic agriculture, but farmers have manipulated genes over past centuries, consciously or unconsciously, by the way they managed crops.
Dr Scott said that genetic modification in cotton had reduced the aerial application of sprays by 50 per cent, and research which had found using two genes instead of one reduced the risk of insects building up resistance.
In response to Dr Scott, Organic Federation of Australia chairman Sid Cowling said organic farmers are opposed to GMOs for three reasons: philosophical, potential technological impact and possible negative effects on trade.
Weekly Times, 15/10/03, page 23.
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