What was the point of even publishing such an article. The rest of the world is not adopting the GMs - it is being force fed them. The US is railroading everyone into thinking GM crops are fine so that have the majority of the supply stitched up to then railroad the EU. Still no-one has proven any advantages in growing GM crops and as we have recently seen in GM cotton what happens when it all goes pear shaped who picks up the pieces when we get resistance issues on both the plant and animal world.

Is this headline simply seeking sensationalism of assisting the GM propaganda lobby? Most Aussies don't want GM.

I am still baffled by people that believe that GM crops are being forced onto farmers, and that there are no benefits of the products. To use GM cotton in Australia as an example, it has dropped insecticide use by 85%. That leads to less pollution in waterways, less plane and tractor use (so less emissions), and is safer for farm workers....ask any cotton grower! For some reason those who oppose the technology just don't want to accept the truth and are getting away with spreading fear becuase the majority of people know nothing about farming. As for the potential resistance developing to GM cotton, the fact is that even after 12 years of being used it still remains a very stable platform, and there is no change in the number of sprays required across the industry....even if at some stage resistance did develop, growers still have the choice to plant conventional cotton varieties and use conventional chemistry.....no one is being forced!!

I can't believe this one-sided piece of propaganda passes for journalism. European resistance to GE crops is as strong as ever - and with good reason. There is growing evidence that GE crops are harmful to the environment and may be harmful to human health. And as for pesticides not being able to be used on GE crops - what a load of claptrap. 80% of GE crops are herbicide tolerant. This means that farmers can spray more herbicides on their crops not less - as has already happened in the US.

Captain makes several suspect claims: 1. that pesticide use on GM cotton is down 85%, relates to an unpublished 2002 report (on defunct GM cotton varieties). But repeated requests for the report and data are declined. 2. Roundup reistance, no worries. But resistant weeds are rampant - 1989 annual ryegrass; 2007 barnyard grass; 2008 liverseed grass. What next, with Roundup repeatedly sprayed on GM cotton and canola? 3. Conventional seed will continue to be available. But North American experience shows that when GM crops fail, traditional seed is not for sale. GM cotton creates new problems. Queensland DPI recently found cotton pests resistant to Bt toxins and The Land 15/1/09 reports a NSW DPI survey finding plant pathogens widespread in the cotton crop, now mostly GM. They earlier reported that Fusarium and verticillium wilts emerged as problems when GM cotton varieties were adopted. GM crops are a dud.

Help!!! Quite frankly, I am totally fed up hearing how GE will literally save the world. The truth of the matter is, GE is not an exact science like it is claimed to be. Cutting and pasting genes is really hit and miss. We are reliant on the scientist extracting the gene with the characteristics required and then inserting this into a host gene. They really don’t know how this gene will behave in the new host cell or what damage is being done to the DNA in the process. It really is hit and miss. To add to this, there is no stopping the spread of the GE once it is planted. It is literally being forced upon us! Where is the freedom of choice we talk about? I refuse to be part of some experiment. This is wrong. Who will protect the organic industry and my rights to choose organic food, which I currently enjoy? We are allowing the biotech industry to gain control of the world's food supply. This is for no apparent reason, the latest reports on crop yields are dismal in comparison to the promises! The reason is hidden agendas, pretty obvious.

There are tens of millions of tonnes of GM grain grown around the world every year and guess what? Every last tonne of it is bought and sold and consumed.

It is milled or crushed for animal feed or human consumption, or turned into a renewable energy like ethanol or biodiesel.

The Japanese know they are importing GM canola from Canada and the Europeans know they are importing GM soymeal from North or South America.

The thing is their health and scientific regulators have scrutinised the products and know that there is nothing wrong with it. Now the farmers in the EU are realising that some of their agronomic problems may be solved by the introduction of this science. I met French farmers in 2006 looking to introduce the technology.

Lou, do you understand anything about cotton agronomy? Cotton growers in Australia have gone from as many as 12 applications of herbicide in a season in the days before GM cotton, to as little as 1 or 2 or even none.

Just because a cultivar has a chemical resistance gene does not mean multiple applications of a chemical are applied.

As to buying organic produce, nothing is stopping its production. This notion that landscapes are 'polluted', by the presence of GM crops is a fantasy. GM canola volunteers for example, die out very quickly. They do not persist in the wild. That is why farmers carefully prepare their paddocks to make a good seed beds with minimal weed burden for a canola crop - weeds compete strongly against canola.