"Victorian farmers have welcomed reports that the Victorian Government will give farmers the choice to grow genetically modified crops, effectively breaking ranks with other Labor states that have imposed moratoria on GM production.
"According to The Age, sources close to Premier Steve Bracks say the government is satisfied there is almost zero risk associated with GM crops and the ban "will be allowed to expire next year".
Read the complete article at Farm Online: http://www.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=42448
'there is a fair chance using native Indian host trees the 'new' Australian production system will be an environmental winfall' - Aaron
So you are saying no studies have been carried out Edmunds? You've just decided it will probably be ok, not very scientific 101...what happens if its not?....
'No GM trait/s could help production on my marginal soils'- Aaron
Sounds like GM heresy 101, Edmunds...
'The list is endless' - Aaron
Almost as endless as the list of weed and pest species out evolving the Ag-biotech industry's GM attempts to kill them...
'In case you haven't noticed consumers are having less say in just what they are served because in their droves, farmers are choosing to sell their produce to biofuel manufacturers.' - Aaron
Really Edmunds? You sure your local supermarket just didn't have much demand for Durian fruit and so stopped stocking it?
Just to indulge your pet theory for a moment, logically GM crops increased yields will allow farmers to grow more produce for the biofuel manufacturers since clearly farmers must be making more money from that market, which is why they are not selling it to supermarkets on whichever planet your economics 101 was studied; however Biofuel cannot meet the demands of the petro dependant West and demand is going to keep on rising, pushing up demand and therefore prices as the third world develops... so the 'people' starve in both your GM and your non-GM scenarios..... at which point 'the 'people' are going to be mightily p#ssed off'... at farmers..
'soyoil futures have made record highs just this week' - Aaron
I very much doubt that is organic soyoil futures Edmunds.. so much for your championing of GM will feed the world 101.
Breeding based purely on selection. First stages on any breeding program particularly with wild species always begin with Selection 101. Given India has native sandalwood and wheat is not a native there is a fair chance using native Indian host trees the 'new' Australian production system will be an environmental winfall for the triple bottom line.
Yes Lamna asus, I have the intelligence to be able to comprehend that GM and native crops can exist side by side. In fact given the chance I would actually prove it for you. No GM trait/s could help production on my marginal soils so I plant native trees there 101. On my ever reliable soils GM could provide great benefits to production. EG BT resistance to Heliothis attack in canola and pulses. Glufosinate tolerance in legumes and canola for end of season crop topping (ie weed control). Interspecific hybridisation of Lupinus mutabilis with angustifolious for high oil acid tolerant legumes. The list is endless and no doubt beyond your lack of agronomic engenderment.
Why would I adopt both? Because I can see the inevitability of being able to increase productivity, sustainability and marketability. Food inflation (agflation) is coming to a supermarket near you. And when it really bites, the 'people' are going to be mightily p#ssed off.
In case you haven't noticed consumers are having less say in just what they are served because in their droves, farmers are choosing to sell their produce to biofuel manufacturers. Palm oil futures, soyoil futures have made record highs just this week. This will continue and lord help you when the crude oil price rallies on top of this. So if you are worried about GM food we simply sell to the cars 101.
Anonymity is a safe place to preach from eh Lamus asus? Gutless mate gutless ... 101.
'I am actually bedding down a supply contract with an Indian corporate house now to 'export' the system and my genetic base' - Aaron
Are you saying you are setting up a deal where you are going to export an Australian crop species that parasitizes on an Australian tree species to India?...What independant scientific studies have been conducted to ensure that this is not going to cause environmental damage to native Indian flora and fauna?.. Water Hyacinth, Cane Toad etc. 101...
"You have all sorts of forces going in opposite directions," said Danny Gabay, director at Fathom Financial Consulting
Well at least one part of Edmunds latest cut and paste job was accurate.
GM can be cheaper if the trait engenders increased production. That is as simple as it gets in Economics 101! - Aaron
Since the same can be said for non-GM crops, thats
the usual GM propaganda... Out of interest how many of your expanded range of nut cultivars are GM enhanced? Your site appears to only mention a 'nut breeding program'.
'The answer is to plant new (old) ones. If your farmers had any brains they'd be planting chestnuts and other indigenous perennial staple crops' - Aaron
Ya gotta admire Aaron, from promoting GM to promoting native species in one breathtaking volte-face... I wonder if the idea of indigenous perennial staple crops is being promoted with quite the same enthusiasm by Edmunds to a certain Indian corporate house...
Farmers in India, Brazil, Russia, France, Thailand and China have defied government decrees banning engineered crops.
They've faced threats of fines and imprisonment to grow GM crops. In Brazil, they've driven off government inspectors with guns and dogs.
Farmers know better than anyone what improves agricultural productivity, and with this degree of enthusiasm, you either say, "farmers are drooling cretins" or you concede that these crops are good for farmers.
Of course GM crops, and the foods made from them, are cheaper. If you shop for non-GM "organic" food, you will quickly discover that the alternative is cheaper by orders of magnitude.
This sort of research is within the reach of anyone who shops at grocery stores.
GM can be cheaper if the trait engenders increased production. That is as simple as it gets in Economics 101!
is someone pretending that GM food is CHEAPER?
ha, well ive read it all now.
Here's a dainty little story for you too Lamna. Poor old motherland! Dependent on others for oil, for gas, for water and even food. Dangerously complacent stance to take ...
-------------------------------------------------
Economists chew over 'agflation' and wonder if high food prices are here to stay
Reuters
Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2007
LONDON - Food prices, historically as changeable as the weather, are often put to one side when central bankers and economists gauge inflation, but soaring prices for everything from corn to milk are forcing a rethink.
Calculations of core inflation strip out food and energy prices, seen as volatile and therefore liable to skew any snapshot of consumer price levels. But some analysts now argue that a steep climb in the cost of food worldwide in recent months could be permanent, or at least long lasting.
Merrill Lynch has even coined a term to capture the phenomenon of food prices forcing up consumer prices more broadly: "agflation."
Corn prices are at 10-year highs, pushing up the cost of feed for livestock and therefore meat as well. Wheat and dairy prices are also up across the board.
The implication for global growth is potentially serious if the inflationary threat convinces central banks to set interest rates at higher levels than they would otherwise do. Few countries, developing or developed, seem immune.
In China, inflation was three per cent in April, just off a two-year high, driven by food-price inflation of 7.1 per cent.
U.S. food prices, normally in line with broader price levels, are expected to outpace the general inflation rate by as much as two per cent for the next two years. A leading culprit in Britain's 3.1-per-cent inflation in March, famously beyond the Bank of England's target zone, was food prices, up nearly twice as much.
Forecasting the future of food prices is more the realm of the agronomist than the economist. But enough evidence has now accumulated for economists to contemplate what-if scenarios of persistently higher food prices and their impact on inflation.
Hot, dry weather in many parts of the world augurs poorly for this year's harvest -- that is seasonal volatility.
However, there are also shifting demand and supply patterns, which could amount to structural change.
Demand for agricultural goods has spiked because of the fast-developing bio-fuels industry and bigger appetites in China as it continues to surge. And unlike past periods of rising food prices, farm experts say there is less spare capacity of cultivatable land.
Some analysts are confident that the agricultural market will respond to the incentive of higher prices and begin to produce more, putting a lid on agflation.
"You have all sorts of forces going in opposite directions," said Danny Gabay, director at Fathom Financial Consulting.
Advances in the science of genetic modification, admittedly controversial, could increase farming yields for crops from wheat to tomatoes. And though water and land supplies have grown tighter with the global population explosion, some suggest there is still more room for farming, such as Brazil's grasslands.
If agflation does truly take off, it would hurt most in developing countries, because of the relatively large portion of personal expenditures their residents devote to food. This is reflected in the heavy weighting given to food in the commodity baskets used to measure inflation in developing countries.
Although the developing world would bear the brunt of agflation, it could ripple through to consumers in wealthier countries.
For example, costlier food in China could lead to increasing wage demands there -- and, consequently, more expensive made-in-China goods for shoppers overseas.
Such an import price shock is the main way that Alan Castle, chief U.K. economist at Lehman Brothers, thinks the food factor could impinge on medium-term inflation forecasts.
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=51cf50a2-b610-4777-832c-4ed466d7e2....
The current drought bears no burden to my plans. If anything it actually hastens my sense of urgency to convert wheat acres across to Australian NATIVE sandalwood acres. A crop that is NATIVE to most of Australia's southern cropping zones and hence has a high degree of drought tolerance. Its also a parasite and adapted to host on another drought hardy Australian native legume - the Acacia. So a drying climate is an ideal backdrop for this production system which requires NO IRRIGATION and NO hyperinflating nitrogen FERTILIZER.
So rather than just eyeball my website's pictures (I know I am a good looking chap and all) maybe you should explore the substance in the text. You'll probably learn something albeit reluctantly. After all it is a model of staple food production for drylands around the world where rainfall is dropping and fossil fuel based inputs are hyperinflating in price.
"Edmonds answer is apparently - Crikey! Plant more crops!"
The answer is not to plant more crops. The answer is to plant new (old) ones. If your farmers had any brains they'd be planting chestnuts and other indigenous perennial staple crops because if the oil stops flowing out of the Middle East, the food stops coming out of that beautiful rich soil of yours.
The current drought bears no burden to my plans. If anything it actually hastens my sense of urgency to convert wheat acres across to Australian NATIVE sandalwood acres. A crop that is NATIVE to most of Australia's southern cropping zones and hence has a high degree of drought tolerance. Its also a parasite and adapted to host on another drought hardy Australian native legume - the Acacia. So a drying climate is an ideal backdrop for this production system which requires NO IRRIGATION and NO hyperinflating nitrogen FERTILIZER.
So rather than just eyeball my website's pictures (I know I am a good looking chap and all) maybe you should explore the substance in the text. You'll probably learn something albeit reluctantly. After all it is a model of staple food production for drylands around the world where rainfall is dropping and fossil fuel based inputs are hyperinflating in price.
"Edmonds answer is apparently - Crikey! Plant more crops!"
The answer is not to plant more crops. The answer is to plant new (old) ones. If your farmers had any brains they'd be planting chestnuts and other indigenous perennial staple crops because if the oil stops flowing out of the Middle East, the food stops coming out of that beautiful rich soil of yours.
Lamna you clearly have no understanding of how agriculture needs to evolve and you would be well served to actually read through my website rather than just eyeball the pictures. Sandalwood nuts are NATIVE to my farm so I am in fact basing future agricultural development on an ancient crop most likely utilised by aborigines. I am re-planting this drought tolerant native crop which hosts upon an equally drought tolerant host tree that is leguminous - Acacias. So no production is directly correlated to rainfall and there is no need for fertilizer inputs since nitrogen nutrition comes from the Acacia and being native the trees are adapted to poor soils with low phosphorus levels.
Last year was the worst drough on record for my European crops. It was the best on record in the 8 years I have been fostering this system for sandalwood establishment.
There was never any irrigation in my area so we never got dumbed down with imported resources for illogical production regimes.
So