Jared Ingersoll on GM foods

A few months ago I wrote about Steve Marsh, a WA farmer who was suing his neighbor for GM contamination of his organic canola. The case was important for raising the question: ‘Shouldn’t every farmer be able to work their land to supply the markets that they believe to be in the best interest of their own livelihood?’ No laws were broken, both farmers were within their rights to grow whatever they wanted to grow, including in the neighbour’s case, GM canola.

GM food brings up loads of highly emotive arguments and there are valid points on both sides, but in this case the High Court ruled in favor of the neighbour, even though there was arguably little done to stop contamination.

An article on the ACLA website proved very insightful in relation to the finding, saying: “If you are operating or looking to invest in an operation that farms GM crops, or is proposing to undertake an activity that might adversely affect a neighbour, it is worth ensuring that the operation has measures in place to ensure that any risks to neighbours are appropriately identified, managed and addressed.”

I asked a friend if I’m unreasonable to think that it’s annoying to constantly have to safeguard against these technologies. She responded:
“GM dumbs the complexity of the world down. It says it’s OK to have corn as long as it suits a particular notion of the ‘perfect’ corn – resilient against disease, changing climactic conditions, attractive to look at in a standardised way. It is the first step towards mechanising nature and has no soul to it. Without soul, the world becomes a place where people don’t make choices about what they eat because they don’t think about it, they become more remote from their food system. And when that happens you become remote from your environment and forget about the impact our footprint makes on the world. How many people care about where the plastic thingy you put your food into at the supermarket? It’s taken for granted. Food is going the same way and then the environment is going to go the same way, and because they forget how to think for themselves and question their surroundings, people will go the same way too.”

Could not have said it better myself!