World not ready for GM wheat - conference


 AUSTRALIA: April 18, 2002

 MELBOURNE - The world market was not ready for genetically
 modified (GM) wheat, which occupied a special category in the world
 food chain, industry leaders told the Grains Week conference yesterday.

 Millers and bakers would not deal with GM wheat, while stores would not
 put GM wheat or noodles on their shelves amid current public concern,
 Alan Tracy, president of U.S. Wheat Associates, said.

 "Should we grow a product that won't sell?" he asked. "The market is
 not ready for GM wheat at this time."

 Asked why the United States was not producing GM wheat when it had
 moved strongly into production of other GM crops including soybeans,
 Tracy said wheat was the world's most sensitive agricultural product.
 "Wheat is mentioned in the Lord's Prayer, other commodities are not,"
 he said.

 Complete separability of conventionally produced wheat from GM wheat
 could not be guaranteed. This would leave the conventional product
 vulnerable on world markets, he said.

 Tracy pointed to disruptions already caused in international trade by
 GM corn which had entered markets for conventional corn.

 The international wheat industry had to work realistically on the
 challenges posed by genetic modification, he said.

 U.S. life science group Monsanto Co. was ready to launch "Roundup
 Ready" GM wheat in 2005.

 Australian scientists were also conducting research into GM wheat,
 concentrating on gluten content and on drought resistance, he said.

 Allan McKinnon, special negotiator for agriculture in the Office of
 Negotiations in Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
 told the conference that previous public hysteria against GM foods was
 beginning to swing back more toward acceptance of modified foods.

 But public concern had produced some of the most stringent labelling
 laws in the world in Australia on GM food.

 WTO GM PROTOCOL ATTACKED

 Present laws in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were adequate to
 deal with GM trade, he said, adding his voice to a chorus of opposition
 at the conference over the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

 The protocol, put forward by European nations, aims to protect the
 environment from uncontrolled release of GM organisms by imposing
 controls on trade.

 The protocol was attacked by many speakers at the conference for its
 potential to create trade barriers which could be justified under a
 "precautionary principle".

 Alan Oxley, managing consultant at International Trade Strategies Pty
 Ltd and a former Australian career diplomat and trade negotiator, said the
 protocol would give the European Union unrestrained power to block
 imports of any GM product in the future.

 However, he also said that in 10 to 20 years' time, a GM variant of
 every major commodity would exist.

 REUTERS NEWS SERVICE