In his small, sweet-scented farm hidden on southern Tasmania's rugged Snug Tiers, organic herb grower Greg Whitten seems secure from most things that the world might hurl at him. Insects are controlled with knowhow, not pesticides.
Contamination can leapfrog over a period of time.
When not building their mud brick and pole house, he and his wife, Liz Ekins, tend their range of herbs for teas and infusions, which go on sale around Australia and overseas. This week Mr Whitten left the farm to take his case to a Senate committee hearing in Hobart on the Federal Government's gene technology bill. He went there to back up the Tasmanian Government's ban on GM crops, and to tell the senators what the technology would cost farmers like him. I think even to label a product GM-free you only need to have it down around 0.1 to one per cent. We hand-harvest our premium quality flowers.