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GM Seeds May Be In Australian Food Tonnes of genetically modified cotton seed had accidentally been released on to the market, and could have entered the food chain as cattle feed, the giant chemical company Monsanto admitted yesterday. The technical director of Monsanto, Mr Bill Blowes, told an Australian Senate committee investigating genetic modification that modified cotton seed had inadvertently been mixed with non-GM seed, and the company now had "no way of knowing" where it had ended up. Mr Blowes said "some tonnes" of GM cotton seed had accidentally been mixed with non-GM seed on a farm in Queensland. The mixed seed went into "one big pile", which might have been crushed for oil, used for stock feed and/or export. Asked if any of it ended up as food, Mr Blowes said: "It could have. There's no way of knowing. "If it became stock feed, it was probably fed to cattle. But when asked if it was now part of the Australian food chain, he said: "If it is part of the Australian food chain, it would be as oil, cotton-seed oil." The committee, inquiring into the proposed Gene Technology Bill, which would regulate genetically modified crops and animals, has heard evidence of several cases of accidental release of GM crops into the environment. It also has heard considerable criticism of the regulatory body for slowness to act in cases of releases of GM crops; often only after media publicity has it released details of accidents. Mr Blowes told the committee the interim office which regulates GM experiments had indicated after a preliminary investigation of the Queensland cotton-seed accident they did not believe the accidental release posed any "issue to the environment or to human health or animal health". He ducked a question by the committee chairwoman, Labor Senator Rosemary Crowley, on whether he could give any assurance to the committee or community that the GM seed was not now "being eaten by the cows of Australia". "I can give the assurance, madam chair, that we have provided to the regulatory agencies around the world our submissions for this technology," he said. "Without exception they have been accepted. We have import clearances for the use of round-up ready cotton in all the importing countries ..." Other GM cotton seed was used as cattle feed elsewhere. A Labor committee member and critic of the Government's attempts to regulate GM trials in Australia, Mr Alan Griffin, said the latest evidence of the accidental release of the GM cotton seed again showed the need for a full audit of all GM food trials across Australia. "It appears that only after media scrutiny does the regulator act or at least make its actions public," he said. "Today's proceedings highlight the need for Mr Wooldridge [the Minister for Health] to take action to ensure the regulator does its job properly." The message for New Zealand is transparent... if GE organisms are in the country, they will eventually end up in the food..
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