BERRI Barmera Council’s request to remain free of genetically modified (GM) crops has been rejected by the State Government, despite the outcome of community consultation earlier this year.
Following initial public consultation, council decided to apply for an exemption after receiving 20 written submissions against the lifting of the GM crop moratorium, compared to just five in favour.
However, Primary Industries Minister David Basham announced on Monday that the Berri Barmera Council exemption application, along with those from 10 other councils across the state, had been rejected.
“Under the legislation, councils had a once-off six-month opportunity to apply to remain GM free but under the Act passed by Parliament, applications could only be considered on trade and marketing grounds,” Mr Basham said.
“The GM Crop Advisory Committee assessed the 11 applications and deemed there wasn’t sufficient evidence to recommend designation as an area where no GM food crops can be grown.”
Mr Basham said the lifting of the GM crop moratorium would give the state’s grain growers “the certainty they need ahead of the 2021 season”.
“It also brings our farmers and researchers onto a level playing field with their counterparts around the country who have had access to GM technology for at least a decade,” he said.
“An independent review found so-called price premiums under a GM moratorium in South Australia were a myth and has cost our state’s grain growers at least $33 million since 2004.”
Berri Barmera chief executive officer Karyn Burton said it was “disappointing” the Minister “disregarded the feedback from our community”.
“The majority of the councils were knocked back for not providing the marketing and trade data that was required, but councils aren’t necessarily in the position in a short amount of time to gather that data to give to the Minister,” she said.
“We have forwarded our disappointment to the Minister that local government were being used as a vehicle for the State Government to do their consultation process.”
Grain Producers SA chair Adrian McCabe welcomed the State Government’s decision.
“As a grower, I am very excited about this decision because after 16 long years we can now aspire to be on a level playing field with our mainland interstate counterparts,” he said.
“Lifting the longstanding GM moratorium has been a difficult and emotive debate at times, however following the leadership of former Minister Tim Whetstone, who worked diligently to secure the support of the opposition, we have finally achieved important reform that some in industry thought impossible.”
For more information about GM crops, visit www.pir.sa.gov.au/primary_industry/genetically_modified_gm_crops.