Top chefs cook up plan to boycott GM dining
The Age, May 24 2008
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/top-chefs-cook-up-plan-to-boycott-gm-dining/2008/05/23/1211183108492.html

THE head chef of one of Melbourne's best-known restaurants has called on consumers to boycott establishments that don't commit to being GM-free.

"I know it sounds scary ”¦ but unless a massive amount of people go against (GM), nothing is going to be done to stop it," Geraud Fabre, head chef of France-Soir restaurant in South Yarra, says.

"I don't say it to get more customers, but I reckon ”¦ if people close their restaurants because there are no customers ”¦ it would make the Government realise they shouldn't (allow genetically modified crops in Australia)."

Fabre is one of a number of top chefs nationally who have signed an anti-GM chefs' charter designed to pressure state and federal governments to prevent the introduction of genetically engineered crops into Australia.

The GM-Free Chefs' Charter, a Greenpeace initiative, has also already been signed by Stephanie Alexander, Neil Perry, Kylie Kwong and Botanical restaurant's Paul Wilson, and chefs from around Australia will be urged to sign up. The charter, which will be released in full at a Sydney launch on Thursday, calls for strict labelling of GM foods. The chefs who sign up to it believe GM foods pose a risk to their clientele and the nation as a whole, it says.

"Because of the untested long-term risks associated with the growing and consumption of GM foods, we are strongly opposed to serving them ”” or ingredients derived from GM products ”” in our restaurants."

The launch of the charter comes just a month after Victorian farmers began sowing their first GM canola crops following the lifting of moratoriums on GM canola in Victoria and NSW.

The Victorian ban was lifted after the federal regulator concluded GM canola posed no unusual health risks and a review led by Victorian chief scientist Gustav Nossal estimated a continued ban would cost the state economy up to $115 million by 2016.

The Nossal report also dismissed fears that non-GM canola could be contaminated by GM canola or that the price of non-GM canola would drop if GM canola was grown close by.

Victorian grain grower Andrew Broad is testing herbicide-resistant GM canola on his Bridgewater farm after a study tour convinced him grain industries in Europe, the US and South America had suffered no ill effects from GM canola.

However, the technology would have to prove itself with bigger crop yields or greater profitably before he would plant it more widely on his farm, he said.

Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps said GM canola would put the environment and public health at risk, as well as threatening any premium Australian farmers enjoy from being able to market their crops as GM-free. And once GM canola had been introduced into Australia, it would quickly "conquer all and make everyone (farm) GM", he said.

Fabre, who first became concerned about GM crops about five years ago, said: "I reckon anybody with half a brain (knows) you shouldn't be trying something that you don't know the outcome of."

Wilson, Botanical's chef-director, agreed. "There has not been enough testing on humans and there hasn't been enough established research to prove it's not harmful to us," he said.

"We want to support (the campaign) ”¦ to separate ourselves from establishments that don't care. We want people to know we do care about the health of our customers."