GMO Pundit a.k.a. David Tribe: Australian Academy of Science endorses GM crops but Bob Phelps of Gene Ethics said the report was biased and a "bunch of lies".

The Age mentions an Inconvenient Truth - drought tolerant GM crops.

Academy endorses GM crops

Jewel Topsfield, The Age
December 18, 2007

GENETICALLY modified crops will play a critical role in alleviating malnutrition, combating climate change and removing allergens from food — and the technology must be embraced in Australia, according to Australia's top scientists.

The prestigious Australian Academy of Science has released a statement strongly endorsing the controversial crops and claiming state-based legislation should be consistent with the national system.

"Sometimes the lack of full certainty, in an environment of manageable risk, should not be used as the reason to postpone measures where genetic modification can legitimately be used to address environmental or public health issues," the statement says...

...Australian Academy of Science spokesman T. J. Higgins told The Age the majority of scientists were comfortable with genetically modified plants.

He said Western Australia and Tasmania's opposition to the technology was political rather than scientific.

"From a scientific perspective, we have been eating food from genetically modified products for at least 10 years and there are no known risks associated with that," Dr Higgins said.

"Foods made from genetically modified products are probably safer than some conventional products because they undergo so much more scrutiny during the testing."

The academy's statement said gene technology would play a critical part in Australia's response to the challenges it faced over coming decades, including climate change.

But Bob Phelps, of Gene Ethics, said the report was biased and a "bunch of lies". He said there were no drought-tolerant GM crops, so the technology could not combat climate change, and herbicide-resistant species meant crops were sprayed with more chemicals....

The Inconvenient Truth Mr Phelps has trouble recalling:

Drought tolerance related GM crop reports at GMO Pundit (see also Water use tag below)

Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Field trials on drought-tolerance and water use efficiency with GM crops hit the news in Australia

Posted Saturday, July 28, 2007
By protecting roots biotech already protects crops against drought.
Biotech Corn Doing Better in Dry Indiana Soil
- Gary Truitt, Hoosier Ag Today, July 26, 2007

Posted Sunday, November 04, 2007
South African drought-resistant maize trials to start soon
Drought-resistant maize trials to start soon
- Hans Pienaar, The Star (South Africa), Oct. 22, 2007

Posted Thursday, December 13, 2007
Drought tolerant crops from Arcadia Biosciences.
CALIFORNIA: Arcadia Biosciences reports progress in drought-tolerance crop development
11.dec.07
Arcadia Biosciences

Sent 13/06/2007 and subsequently published in The Age:

Dear Editor

In The high cost of opening the door to GM crops 12/06, Bob Phelps asserts that the benefits of GM crops are empty promises.

Before Age readers take Mr Phelps story of empty promises at face value, they should remember that we live in a drought prone country, and it is promises about drought-protection that readers should think about very carefully before they take Mr Phelps' story too seriously.

Australians need to weight up carefully the potential for gene technology to protect crops against drought and for providing ways of using precious water more efficiently. Mr Phelps' article gives the wrong impression this is simply a pie in the sky dream.

Drought tolerance from GM crops is in fact a field-trial reality, and has been for years.

This reality is backed up by more than 300 registered field trials of such crops in the US going back over the last 8 years or so. The trials cover a wide range of crops including cotton, wheat, maize, potato, and tomato. Dow-Jones news service recently reported that drought tolerant maize can give about 9% better cereal yields under water stress conditions in such trials.

Mr Phelps disingenuously claims no drought-tolerant GM crops have been commercialised or trialled in Australia, but what he doesn't say is that there are field trials for water-efficient cotton and water-efficient sugar cane already underway and registered with our national gene technology national regulator (the OGTR )

Age readers should realise there is an extremely high future cost to slamming the door now on these welcome results of crop innovation. If shut, the door will be shut for years, because breeding and testing new crop varieties to suit local conditions takes years. Meanwhile with a door shut here our trade competitors in North and South America would be taking all the advantages. Most likely the Aussie farmer would still suffering badly for years to come from the vagaries of climate change if we make the wrong decision now.

David Tribe Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Update 21 Dec 2007

Even more on drought tolerance: