To the extent that I am a betting man, I'll put my bet on "follow the money" if you want to wager on the outcome of the trial.An Australian farmer is suing his neighbour after his farm was allegedly contaminated by genetically modified (GM) crops from the neighbour's farm.Steve Marsh said he lost organic certification on 70% of his farm after GM canola seeds blew over from Michael Baxter's farm in 2010.
Mr Baxter's lawyers say the organic certifying body has unreasonable standards.
The trial has been described as a test case for farmers' rights.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
genetically modified
It is hard not to think of the hard-ball textured (but oh-so-mechanically-pickable) tomatoes marketed in local stores as "tomatoes" when reading of this lawsuit in Australia.
If I were in Marsh's position I would have been concerned long before losing the "certification." It may just be in the retelling but Marsh doesn't seem to care that the +30% of his produce is no longer actually organic but just that it's not certified as organic.
ReplyDeleteHis real problem is that in few seasons nothing on his farm will be considered organic unless grown in an airtight greenhouse.