Australians must Accept GM food, or Die of Starvation, expert says*

May 07, 2007 05:11pm
Article from: AAP

AUSTRALIANS will have to accept genetically modified (GM) food or die of
Starvation if the agriculture industry is to continue to supply food in
an era of climate change, a plant genetics expert says.

Professor Mark Tester of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional
Genomics at the University of Adelaide said today that GM food should be
embraced as farmers battle the effects of global warming, famine and
starvation.

Prof Tester said a current study was focusing on improving the
"toughness" genes of plants so they could survive in extended periods of
drought, high-salinity areas or hotter weather.

Australian farmers who grew wheat and barley could benefit most from
changes in the structure of plants, he said.

"Genetic modification can help accelerate improvements in crop plants to
enable them to better cope with the rapidly changing environment," Prof
Tester said.

"There is no doubt that as farmers face reduced yields, they will need
all the tools they can get to help them grow our food sustainability and
economically.

"Genetic modification is one of those tools."

Prof Tester said he understood opposition to GM crops because the public
could not see any benefit, but technological improvements would produce
better crops for the future with less stress on the environment.

He said there was no reason why people who embraced organic and clean
food could not embrace GM food.

"Genetically modified food is about adapting the plant to the
environment rather than adopting the environment to the plant," he said.