This comes as GM farmers in Victoria opened up their farms to allow other growers to see the results of their first season of Roundup Ready canola. Early sowing and no cultivation, good weed management and more flexibility in cropping options were some of the reasons the farmers gave for opting to try GM canola in its first season.

Mr Currie said GM farmers were reasonably well protected from litagation as a result of contamination.

He said there were 225 world wide contamination incidents listed at www.gmcontaminationregister.org.< p>"The very nature of GMOs means there's a lot of arguments about whether damage is foreseeable," he said.

"There could be multiple sources of damage, from winds, insects, trucks, cross contamination from a number of different farmers, so how do you pin point where the contamination came from?"

Mr Currie said there were also issues surrounding the statute of limitations, saying damage from GM crops may take generations to show up.

* Extract from a full report in Stock Journal, November 13 issue.