Australian organic farmer files lawsuit after crop ruined by GMO contamination

Thursday, February 13, 2014 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: GMO contamination, organic farmer, Australia

(NaturalNews) More organic farmers these days are being invaded by the transgenic seed and pesticide industry. Genetically modified organisms, developed in a lab, are cross-contaminating real seeds, real crops and real whole food. GMO industry is a bully that scrapes real food off people's plates, replacing nutrition with chemical-bred, genetically altered food science. This food science has destroyed the nutritional content of whole food, while splicing it with bacteria genes.

Organic farmers work extra hard to certify their food, while lab-developed crops go unlabeled

Organic farmers have to go out of their way now to ensure that consumers are receiving real whole food. Extra certification and verification has to be done to prove that their food is actually organic. Meanwhile, food produced in a lab goes under the radar, mass produced, unlabeled. These GMO producers don't have to go through the rigorous and costly process of certifying and verifying their transgenic food.

GMOs are a cancer to whole food and the health liberty of the human race. GMOs make organic food more expensive to certify and obtain. This gives biotech firms an upper hand in the food industry. Their modified food is passed on as if it's real food and sold cheaper to the consumer. There is no honest transparency. Many food products are lies, and people are eating them, oblivious to it all.

The ones doing the right thing for consumers (not trying to capitalize on people's food) are the ones being pushed into nonexistence. In a recent case out of Australia, one organic farmer is pushing back, filing a lawsuit against his neighboring GMO farmer, whose seeds contaminated his, causing him to lose his organic certification, his time and his money.

Landmark Australian court case could decide fate of organic farming

A landmark court case in Australia could decide the fate of organic farming and the future of GMOs in Australian agriculture.

Organic farmer Steve Marsh is suing a former childhood friend of his, Michael Baxter. Baxter farms a genetically modified canola crop, provided by Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company. These Monsanto GMO seed heads have been blowing into Marsh's organic harvest grounds, contaminating land used for organic wheat and oat crops. After an inspection was conducted by the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA), Marsh lost organic status for 70 percent of his farm. Marsh, who has went out of his way time-wise and financially to certify that his field is organic, has recently been stripped of his oat's organic certification and export license thanks to his neighbor's GMO farm.

Marsh is now claiming damages for the loss of income in a civil negligence case he has spearheaded, which opens on Monday in the West Australian Supreme Court. Apparently, Marsh hasn't given up the fight and caved in to industry bullying. It would be easy for him to just go the way of the GMO industry now and start planting transgenic seeds, but he hasn't. Lawyers say this is the first suit of its kind in Australia and will set a precedent for future cases.

Will Australia's strong organic standards be stripped down?

With demand for whole food growing in Asia, this court case could decide whether organic food is important or whether it's a waste of time, as the GMO industry bullies forward.

"People around the world are going to be looking at this," said Michael Blakeney, a law professor at the University of Western Australia who does advisory work for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. "It is testing whether a GMO farmer has a duty of care to a neighbor that's growing organic crops not to contaminate them."

Monsanto, who hides behind a non-liability contract signed between farmers and them, is immune from taking responsibility for the cross-contamination. The farmer, in this case, Baxter, is supposedly at fault.

Australia, which maintains a zero threshold for GMO traces in organic food, is unique among other countries. Countries in Europe, Japan and the US let trace amounts of GMOs slide in organic foods. Australia has a strong standard. Will that standard be stripped or will the Australian courts favor real, whole food?

Sources for this article include:

http://www.iol.co.za