Marketing GM as Popular and isn't??????
How they get you to Swallow it???????
Farmers
around the world are embracing genetically modified crops at near record levels, and Australia has increased its GM cotton
plantings significantly, according to a new report.
The report by the pro-GM International Service for the Acquisition of
Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said the global area for GM crops grew 20 per cent in 2004 - an increase of 13.3 million
hectares.
About 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries planted GM crops last year,
1.25 million more farmers than in 2003.
About 90 per cent of these farmers were in developing countries. "The
continued rapid adoption, especially among small, resource-poor farmers, is a testament to the economic, environmental, health
and social benefits realised by farmers and society in both industrial and developing countries," report author Clive James
said. "Further, in 2004, we continued to see a broadening base of support for biotech crops as many of the countries participating
in biotech crop production significantly increased biotech crop hectarage." The group's report said plantings of GM cotton
- the only biotech broadacre crop used in Australia - had increased. "
After suffering severe drought for the last two years, Australia increased
its total cotton plantings by about 310,000 hectares of which 80 per cent, equivalent to 250,000 hectares, were planted with
biotech cotton in 2004," the report said.
The ISAAA predicts up to 15 million farmers will grow GM crops on 150
million hectares in up to 30 countries by the end of the decade.
But an anti-GM group in Australia, GeneEthics, said
the GM crop industry remained stalled. "
GM crops are only 1.4 per cent of global agricultural area and are not
taking the world by storm," GeneEthics network director Bob Phelps said. "GM crops are also less productive than the best
conventional varieties and cannot feed the world as industry constantly claims."
Nearly all GM crops were grown in five countries - the United States,
Argentina, Canada, Brazil and China, Mr Phelps said. The industry's product range had also stalled, with soy, corn, cotton
and canola being the only GM broadacre commercial crops. "
Shoppers and farmers will make sure that genetically manipulated crops
go nowhere fast," Mr Phelps said.
