NSW has lifted its ban on genetically modified crops: what difference will it make to food and farmers?
New South Wales lifted its ban on genetically modified crops this month, after an 18-year moratorium. It follows the repeal of a similar moratorium in South Australia last year, making Tasmania the last Australian state with a blanket ban on GM crops.
The move has been welcomed by GM proponents as helping farmers become more resilient to the effects of climate change, but opposed by organic farming representatives.
GMOs are widely considered to be safe to human health and the environment, so why are they controversial, and what difference will lifting the ban make to farmers and the food they produce?
What are GMOs and how are they regulated?
Genetically modified organisms are created by adding genes to the DNA of a plant, animal or microbe, usually to give it more desirable traits such as drought tolerance or resistance to pests.
An estimated 99% of Australian cotton, for example, is genetically modified. An insect-resistant variety, Bt cotton, contains a bacterial gene that produces a protein against the cotton bollworm, the plant’s major pest. In Australia, Bt cotton has reduced the use of insecticides on the crop by 92% since its introduction.
GM crops have been grown in Australia since the 1990s, and are regulated by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
Daniel Tan, a professor of agronomy at the University of Sydney, says all GMOs in Australia undergo stringent assessments, including for health effects and environmental impacts, before being approved for commercial use.
“In Australia especially, it’s very safe for us to consume GMO crops because of the rigorous testing that’s been done by our regulators,” Tan says.
Prof Ian Godwin, a plant biotechnology researcher at the University of Queensland, says the main GM crops in Australia are canola, cotton, safflower and carnations.
“If you’re eating imported foods that contain soybean, they’re highly likely to be from genetically modified soy,” Godwin says. Imported products containing maize (corn) are likely also to be GMOs, which are mostly modified for insect resistance.
Some kinds of gene editing are not covered by GMO regulations in Australia. Crops produced by a technique known as SDN1, which removes genes using Crispr technology, don’t have to go through the regulatory process – the genetic changes have been deemed indistinguishable from natural genetic changes that can arise in an organism.
How will the repealed GM moratorium affect farming in NSW?
Although the moratorium on genetically modified crops was in place in NSW from 2003 onwards, it wasn’t a
blanket ban. GM canola, cotton and safflower have been grown in the state since 2008 under a specific exemption.
Godwin says while the moratorium applied to crops for human consumption, GM canola was allowed on the basis that “people are going to eat the oil, but the oil hasn’t got any DNA or other stuff in it, and it’s no different to the oil that comes from a non-GM canola”.
South Australia’s reversal of its GM ban was more significant, Godwin says, because it was a total moratorium even including blocking the seeds of GM crops being transported through the state.
Organic growers in NSW have expressed concern about their crops being contaminated by windblown seed and pollen and the threat that would pose to their certification.
Prof Rachel Ankeny at the University of Adelaide says organic certification stipulates zero tolerance for contact or spread from GM crops.
“Where farms are side by side, it can get tricky, because of this very high threshold within the organic certification.
“I think some of these things need to be looked at in order for people to have peaceful coexistence in different farming regimes.”
In 2014, a Western Australian organic farmer lost a legal dispute against his neighbour, over his claim that GM canola had contaminated his organic oats and rye farm.
What about other concerns about GMOs?
The commercial cultivation of GM crops is still banned in Tasmania, the ACT and on Kangaroo Island.
Tasmania has had a moratorium on GMOs since 2001, with its current ban set to last until 2029. When the ban was last extended, in 2019, the government said the state’s GMO-free status was beneficial in export markets, with some products “commanding a price premium”.
The extension received tri-partisan support and was seen to maintain the state’s “clean green” brand.
Ankeny’s research has shown community opposition to GM foods is broader than just health concerns.
“The evidence to date on GMs is that there aren’t significant or very widespread harms to health,” she says. “People’s concerns seem to be really focused on things like: who’s going to make money off it, why is it being done at all, what are the other potential side effects, say for the environment … some have concerns about whether farmers are going to be left in the pocket of multinationals and forced to use certain seed supply.”
Tan says: “A lot of big companies do control GMOs and invest a lot of money into it ... In Australia it is not too bad because we have our own Australian breeding, [for example] with cotton seed distributors.”
Tan says there are also concerns that herbicide-resistant GM crops, such as glyphosate-resistant canola, may become superweeds, and careful management strategies are needed.
In North America, Godwin says, some organic groups have embraced GM products “for insect resistance or for increasing the ability to take up nitrogen from the soil, because they believe that that actually gives them a better environmental outcome”.
“It’s not just about the science for many people,” Ankeny says. “It’s about their hopes and fears … for their food supply, for their kids’ nutrition, for their health, for the environment, for farmers.”