The landmark case involving Steve Marsh, a Western Australian farmer who has accused his neighbour, Michael Baxter of contaminating his farm with genetically modified canola has wrapped up in the state’s Supreme Court, however the final verdict is not expected to be handed down for another few months.
Marsh lost his organic certification on more than half of his property in 2010 when GM canola allegedly blew down from Baxter’s property.
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard Marsh’s lawyers argue that Baxter demonstrated negligence as he could have reasonably foreseen that GM seeds from his property could spread to Marsh’s organic crops, ABC News reports.
In his defence, Baxter’s lawyers told the court the he was only exercising his right to grow a crop that had been declared safe by the WA government.
The WA state government placed a moratorium on the cultivation of genetically modified crops in 2004, which was then lifted in 2010.
The landmark case has attracted the attention of parties on both sides of the argument.
Marsh’s campaign has been financially backed by Australian not-for-profit, the Safe Food Foundation who have stated that the final decision will either determine a farmer’s right to grow GM free food, or that have that right ‘taken away’.
On the other side of the argument, The Western Australian Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA) have placed their support behind Baxter stating that he has doing nothing wrong other than growing a legal crop, and that Marsh is attempting to impose unnecessary conditions on his neighbour by trying to stop him from growing GM crops.
Australia lifted its moratorium on GM crops five years ago with recent figures suggesting that the overall acceptance of GM canola has been relatively lacklustre.
The case also comes just four months after South Australia extended a moratorium on GM crops until at least 2019, making it the only Australian mainland state to ban GM crop production and trials.