AUSTRALIA'S long-term food security is being severely compromised by genetically-modified crops and the use of pesticides, according to a former senior health regulator from Canada.
Visiting Australia for the first time, Shiv Chopra was in Canberra this week to launch his new book 'Corrupt to the Core' about what he sees as the major threats to food safety from the use of "genetically-manipulated foods, pesticides and herbicides, hormones and antibiotics in animal production systems".
Far from being the answer to higher yields or a drought-proofing option, Dr Chopra told a forum in Parliament that GM organisms and pesticides, in particular, were a serious threat to public health.
He believes they are behind huge increases in cancer rates, neurological and reproductive disorders and breakdowns in immune systems.
He said rather than being under the watch of the Agriculture Minister, GM crops should be the responsibility of the Health Minister.
Dr Chopra told the forum that claims GM crops produced higher yields were nonsense and untrue.
New figures released this week by Monsanto reveal a four-fold increase in the area being planted to GM canola in Australia this year.
GM canola crops in New South Wales and Victoria will roughly account for 10-15 per cent of the entire canola production this year, with plantings expected to grow from 9500 hectares to 40,000ha.
But Dr Chopra said Australian farmers should not "follow blindly" the US and Canada and believes there is a huge market opening for Australian farmers to reject GM crops and pesticide use.
Dr Chopra said the worst food safety offenders were Canada and the US, but he warned that Australia and NZ were "not far behind".
He said those pushing GM crops were "scientists posing as environmentalists".
Dr Chopra said the greatest issue facing the developed and developing worlds were climate change and carbon emissions, while little attention was being paid to food safety and the security of the food supply.
"GMO seeds require enormous applications of energy, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics and other chemicals to protect their own integrity," Dr Chopra says in his book.
"What problems GMOs are creating most policy makers do not care to know."
He said Australian farmers have done so well in the past, and they would continue to do so if they looked after the consumer.
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