There's certainly a market now for GM-free canola in Japan and in Europe. But Dalton points to the very fine line Australia walks. Most of Australia's farm hierarchy believes the country should develop and test GM products and that it would be a mistake to have a moratorium on genetic engineering, he said. Our export markets could be decimated overnight if America finished up with a product that we didn't have access to. There was still a good case for Australia hanging back from GM production, especially on plans to produce GM canola in 2001.
Private traders agree.
As part of Australia's bet each way, it is as quietly as possible carrying out scientific trials into a wide range of genetically engineered crops and products across the country. Potatoes, canola, poppies, tomatoes, clover, field peas, carnations, cotton, wheat, barley, tobacco, baker's yeast, fowlpox virus, Indian mustard, apples, sugarcane and pineapples are all involved. Trials have also involved pigs and cattle. Cotton is the exception as Australia's only major GM crop, with about 30 percent of annual output produced from transgenic seed, but is mostly used as lint in textile manufacture. Australian and New Zealand health ministers meet in Canberra on October 22 to consider proposals on labelling for GM foods.