GM farmer wins landmark court case

The Western Australian Supreme Court has dismissed organic farmer Steve Marsh’s claims for damages over contamination from his neighbour Michael Baxter’s genetically modified canola crop.

Mr Marsh claimed the contamination caused him to lose his organic certification on more than half his Kojonup property for almost three years.

Mr Baxter is a conventional farmer growing crops that include genetically modified or Roundup Ready canola.

The trial found that there was no evidence of genetic transference risks to neighbouring property by the Roundup Ready canola, noting that the Marshes had never grown canola on their property.

The decision gives farmers - organic, conventional and GM crop farmers - assurance that they can co-exist, even when their production systems differ.

As Dr Andrew Jacobs from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics noted, the case reflects poorly on Australia’s organic certification body, the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture (NASAA), which has zero tolerance for contamination in broad acre crops. Similar accreditation bodies overseas allow for small amounts of unintended presence of other seeds.

“We hope that the NASAA policy might be reviewed and brought in line with similar policies around the globe to support farmers wishing to grow crops for their niche markets. GM crops can be consistent with organic farming,” said Dr Jacobs.

AusBiotech also welcomed the decision, stating that it “… reaffirms the importance of coexistence principles that allow farmers to benefit from continually evolving agricultural technologies that have been demonstrated scientifically to be safe and effective. Without access to technological developments, our agricultural industry will certainly fail to compete with international markets where these technologies are adopted.”