GENETICALLY modified canola has escaped from its containment areas in southern NSW, just over a year after a moratorium on growing the crop was lifted by the State Government.
Canola matching a genetically altered strain patented by the agribusiness giant Monsanto was found growing beside the Riverina Highway, and apparently at other locations, near Jerilderie.
Many farmers who decided not to grow Monsanto's modified "Roundup Ready" canola are concerned that their commercial status as GM-free producers is compromised, and believe the apparent biosecurity breach may threaten export earnings.
"The problem is that farmers will end up growing GM canola whether we want to or not," said Jerilderie farmer Gay Marshall, who found the stray GM plants near the farm she runs with her husband Dick.
She sent them for testing at a commercial laboratory.
When the moratorium on the GM strain was lifted in March 2008, the Government promised the strain would not get mixed in with the traditional crop.
"GM canola will be segregated from non-GM canola - people will know what they are eating," the Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, said at the time.
However, the biggest grain handler, Graincorp, announced in May that it would be mixing the crops together. This means that processed foods that use canola oil, including many types of biscuits, potato chips and baby food, will soon contain some genetically modified material.
It is regarded as safe for human consumption by the Commonwealth Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
But farmers who were planning to retain their GM-free status are now concerned that there is no way to stop GM seeds getting into their fields.
Asked if the discovery constituted a biosecurity breach, Mr Macdonald said in a statement that stray roadside plants were easily destroyed by slashing them down or with herbicides.
"This everyday occurrence is taken into account when industry standards and protocols are developed for supply chains," Mr Macdonald said.
Responsibility for managing roadside weeds fell to the Roads and Traffic Authority, he said.
Asked if contamination of non-GM crops would affect exports, he said: "This issue is irrelevant to export opportunities because there are established markets for both GM canola and conventional canola."
Monsanto's statement to the Sydney Morning Herald on the issue contained some of the same phrases used by Mr Macdonald.
A spokeswoman for Monsanto, Honi McNaughton, said that although the company had sued farmers overseas for producing crops with its patented genes after their fields were contaminated, that would not happen in Australia.
"We're not going to be pursuing anybody for growing a couple of plants in their fields," she said. "Those people we have acted against in the past are people that have illegally saved seeds and used it without paying us for our intellectual property."
The non-GM group Biological Farmers of Australia said experience with GM canola in Canada showed that within a few years the majority of the canola crop would be completely interlinked with GM material.
The Network of Concerned Farmers said there were reports of modified canola taking root in wheat and other crops.
"It was always inevitable that there would be contamination by GM canola once the moratorium was lifted," a spokeswoman, Juliet McFarlane, said. "The idea that we were going to get a choice about growing GM canola was always a joke.''
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