CSIRO scientists responded with anger after Greenpeace activists broke into the groups plantation and destroyed half a hectare of GM wheat grain trials.
The incident took place last Thursday and involved two woman who defended their actions claiming they were protecting people’s health and the environment.
“This is about the protection of our health, the protection of our environment and the protection of our daily bread,” said Greenpeace Food campaigner Laura Kelly in defence of the sabotage.
In response to the action, Dr Christopher Preston, Associate Professor in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide said, “I am appalled that a fellow scientist’s experiments have been destroyed through this action”.
While Professor Mark Tester, plant scientist at the University of Adelaide, dismissed Greenpeace “generalisations” about GM technology.
“One cannot say that all GM is good or that all GM is bad but it is one of many tools in our toolbox to try and help protect the environment and feed people around the world.”
A recently published article by the UK’s Guardian entitled The Cost of Spurning GM Crops Is Too High, suggests that such acts of protest against GM trials are dues to widespread fears over the corporate control of agriculture, and of the unknown.
The author, Jonathan DG Jones, highlights the results from 25 years of EU-funded research that show there is "no scientific evidence associating GM plants with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms".
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