NOTE: Although there have been major problems elsewhere with GM crop trials, Australian GM proponents like to claim that Australia's GM trials have been problem free over the past 15 years because "in Australia there are stringent guidelines."
http://bit.ly/sbgidj 

Here's a reminder of the reality.

EXTRACT: ...at the Senate inquiry into gene technology legislation, which met in Adelaide yesterday, Aventis representatives alleged that a related government body had known for years about similar breaches [of GM crop trials] but took no action until revelations in the media. [item 2]
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Aventis reprimanded for GM safety breach  
just-food.com, 3 May 2001  http://www.connectotel.com/gmfood/jf030501.txt

Trial workers at the controversial Aventis Crop Science field trials of genetically modified canola in Mount Gambier,  SA [South Australia], have inadvertently breached national security rules, by carrying GM seeds home in their clothing.

The workers argued that they were not provided with protective clothing, safety guidelines, or even informed that the crop was GM.

The breach, which is the third of its kind in four years, has prompted conservationists to demand an immediate halt to all GM field trials. In March last year, Aventis was reprimanded after dumped GM contaminated trash was found by the roadside. A report issued in the same month by the Interim Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (IOGTR) criticised the company after finding uncontrolled re-growth of GM canola in 21 of the 58 Tasmanian trial sites.

This latest breach is proof, according to many, that Aventis is not taking the voluntary safety guidelines seriously.  Scott Kinnear, spokesman for the Organic Federation of Australia, commented yesterday: "This is a clear indication that Aventis is not fit to hold a licence. They have clearly failed to demonstrate their ability to act in a manner that ensures these field trials are contained." 
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GM police to check Aventis canola sites  
By GEOFF STRONG and agencies
Sidney Morning Herald, 23 August 2011
http://ngin.tripod.com/agrevodiary.htm

All experimental sites of genetically modified canola from the multinational Aventis are to be investigated by Federal officials after guidelines were allegedly breached in South Australia this year.

The Interim Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (IOGTR) yesterday confirmed it would audit the Aventis sites after subsequent breaches were found following a spot check at Mount Gambier in late July.

Breaches include the refusal to comply with requirements for a 15-metre buffer around a GM canola crop.

It will also audit all of the company's paperwork associated with its experimental Canola program.

The audit coincides with the publication of the first data in the United States showing the potential for genetically engineered pollen in the wild to reduce insect populations.

An IOGTR spokeswoman said it had been further alarmed by the company's submission to a Senate inquiry, dismissing the breaches as not serious and mere differences in scientific opinion.

An adverse finding could result in the French-owned company losing its permit to conduct canola trials, which it currently does on about 70 sites across Australia.

The trials are used for both the development of a new strain of herbicide-resistant hybrid canola and to produce seed for export back to North America.

But at the Senate inquiry into gene technology legislation, which met in Adelaide yesterday, Aventis representatives alleged that a related government body had known for years about similar breaches but took no action until revelations in the media.

A consultant for the company, Mr George Brownbill, yesterday read out an extract from a 1998 letter from the company to the Government's Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee in which it states that the company did not intend to comply with requirements for a 15-metre buffer around a GM canola crop.

The requirement was for the buffer to consist of non-GM canola plants but the company did not want this because pollen from them would corrupt the GM variety which it wanted to export.

In the US study on cross-pollination between GM and non-GM crops, scientists from Iowa State University have found that plants growing in and near corn fields are being dusted with enough toxic pollen from GM crops to kill monarch caterpillars that feed on them.

The genetically modified corn produces the insecticide Bt in its tissues, including its windblown pollen.

In late March, it was revealed that GM material from an Aventis site near Mt Gambier had been dumped unburied at an open tip and that sexually compatible weeds species were growing around the site.

At the time the company denied any breaches and an interim report by the IOGTR indicated nothing of significance had happened.

But it is understood the Federal Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, intervened, demanding a more thorough investigation. This was released by the Senate inquiry yesterday and revealed five breaches by Aventis at Mt Gambier.

An Aventis spokeswoman, Ms Naomi Stevens, said yesterday the company was not concerned by proposed audit of its sites. "We are comfortable with that. If they want to waste more taxpayer's money they can do so."

But the Federal Opposition's GM spokesman, Mr Alan Griffin, said it was inadequate to just monitor the Aventis site and that all GM trials in Australia should be monitored. 

Aventis banned GM plants dumped in tip!
"All genetically modified plant trials are supposed to be conducted under strict control guidelines..."

"These sites so far have been kept secret from local councils, the media and even state government agencies..."
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Banned genetically modified plants dumped at tip 
AAP, March 25 2000
http://ngin.tripod.com/agrevodiary.htm

MELBOURNE - Experimental genetically engineered canola plants, not approved for public release in Australia, have reportedly been dumped in an open commercial rubbish tip, near the South Australian city of Mount Gambier. Federal government experts have warned that herbicide-resistant "super weeds", which are almost impossible to eradicate, could emerge after such plants cross-pollinate with certain common weed species, The Age reported. All genetically modified plant trials are supposed to be conducted under strict control guidelines, because a weed developing herbicide resistance would be a disaster for Australian agriculture and the environment.

The dumped plants being tested by the multinational crop science company Aventis contained at least two genetic modifications – one giving herbicide resistance and a  second encouraging them to make hybrids, the paper said.

They are also likely to have residue from a herbicide glufosinate ammonium not yet approved in Australia, and may have had a third genetic modification to give resistance to  two common antibiotics – one used in human pharmaceuticals. Aventis, a French-German conglomerate formed from a merger of two companies in December, was growing the canola on a site at Yells Road, Moorak, a few kilometres south of Mount Gambier, the paper said. The site had been rented from a potato farmer who said he had signed a confidentiality agreement, but he confirmed both the company and the crop.

These sites so far have been kept secret from local councils, the media and even state government agencies, but in this case a concerned farmer informed The Age about its location, the paper said.