Dear non-GM neighbour,
I noticed you have planted canola next to mine and I am letting you know that my crop is GM canola and you have to follow a few "industry" decided rules so that we can co-exist.

I need to know if you are growing your canola for seed again because we have to work out who will have a 400 metre buffer zone if you are, otherwise there is no mention of a buffer zone for normal crops. It is not compulsory for us to follow the rules with buffer zones but it is recommended and I plan on doing things properly.

There is no policing or penalty regarding buffer zones, and an industry committee called the GTGC has decided it will be left up to us neighbours to sort out between ourselves. There was talk of a 5 metre buffer zone but when it was obvious that this was meant to be in the non-GM growers paddock some farmers kicked up about it and it was changed to the GM growers side. It doesn’t look like they have a need for any buffer zones now.

I hope you are not growing your GM crop for seed again as I don't really think I should be providing a 400 metre buffer zone if you are. Neither of us want to do that but as a GM grower, I will not be affected if I refuse to follow the crop management plans, but you, the non-GM grower will be because you will have to prove you are non-GM.

If you grow seed for replanting, the experts think a 400 metre buffer zone is the best or you will be replanting contaminated seed and will have to market as GM.

But don’t worry, if you market your seed as GM and buy seed every year, you will not have to worry about this but I have to tell you your options.

Regards and best wishes, GM grower

Dear Non-GM neighbour,

It’s not my fault. The industry has decided that we all market as GM but you can still have a choice if you want to market as non-GM and grow your own seed.

The idea is that because you can't get a quarantine certificate to say your canola is guaranteed non-GM, you have to prove it. You have to prove that you have done all you can to stop contamination and it means a whole lot of bookwork, checklists and keeping samples.

It is easier if you just market as GM and buy new seed every year.

If not, it is a lot of rigmarole.

You had better book in to a quality assurance program because it is compulsory if you want to sell as non-GM. I have to do it too and almost fell over when I found it costs a few thousand with a $500/year audit fee. You have to keep the samples because if contamination is found anywhere along the supply chain, you will have these samples tested and you will be liable if it is found that you caused the contamination. You will not know if you are contaminated until there is a problem because those low level tests cost about $800 each and take 3 days to do. It might be worth you checking your insurance for this because it might mean you are liable for a rejection of a shipment or a recall of a product worth millions, but I did hear that insurance was not possible.

Apparently the total identity preservation, segregation and traceability system costs about 20% of your canola value (10% if you can take contamination up to 1%) so it's probably not worth you growing canola at all if you don‘t want to market as GM.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you... You shouldn’t keep growing your own crop for seed, you have to buy certified seed every second year but every year if you aren't quality assured. You might have trouble getting anyone to grade your canola for seed anyway because apparently no seed cleaners want to deal with canola because of the liability. It is a shame that seed does not stay viable for long or you would be able to buy all your certified non-GM seed that you ever need now. Canada has just found that 95% of their certified seed is contaminated and more than half is contaminated beyond certification standards and many with multiple resistances. It will be interesting to find out where Australia will grow their certified non-GM seed because some Canadians are using 2km buffer zones now.

You just have to realise, it’s not worth you worrying about growing your own seed or marketing as non-GM.

Regards, GM neighbour.

Dear Non-GM neighbour,

I can’t control contamination and you know it! We all know that any buffer zone will not stop my GM canola going into yours but you have to expect some contamination. The "experts" said that 1% is OK though but there is a bit of debate about that.

Pollen can travel for about 3km and can last for days on animals like our resident kangaroos and cockies in that area but that’s is the least of our problems.

You are on the wind side of my crop and will probably get some of my swaths going into your paddock anyway. Hopefully winds will never be as bad as the winds last harvest where I heard you didn't have any canola left to harvest because it blew away. You should know more than anyone that the crop is so vulnerable when it is cut into swaths, the wind can pick it up and take it for miles. I know you will not like my new header with the spreader because it will toss my GM canola stubble complete with seed about 20 metres.

Get over it, you will get contamination, it is best that you market as GM from now on, markets should be OK.

GM neighbour.

Dear Non-GM grower,

OK if you want to be like that, this is what you do. I think we should decide that if you want to keep replant your crop for seed you provide the buffer strip and you have 2 choices. You can either plow in 400 metres of your crop that is close to the fenceline, (which is not a good option) or you must treat the first 400 metres of your canola crop as GM.

This means you have to swath and harvest this separately and keep the seed entirely separate all the way through the supply chain. You must have it stored, transported and sold as GM and be responsible for making sure none of this seed is spilt along the way. You then have to completely clean out your header, augers, trucks, silos etc before you move on to your non-GM crop. Some contract harvesters said it would take about 2 days to clean the harvester properly. My wife had a little laugh when I told her what you had to do, she said to say good luck and you can borrow the vacuum cleaner.
When you finish harvest and want to graze your sheep on this canola stubble, you must build a holding pen in your paddock and have to contain them for 7-10 days before you move them. You might have to clean out the manure during this time because otherwise you might find that you will spread some GM seed around your property or even to someone else’s if you sell your stock and the seed is stuck in their feet or wool. There will probably be a clause you have to sign on a sale contract to say your sheep have been grazing on GM though and you might not be able to sell your sheep to some places. You will have to buy some hay because you don't usually pen up your stock and don't forget to order a sheep trough and tank because you will have to put some water into the holding pen. It is funny really, you would think you would have to pen up all the wild animals too because you seem to have as many kangaroos and birds on your canola paddock as you have sheep.
We know about 10% of the canola crop falls on the ground at harvest and can germinate for years later. Whenever you plant a crop in that section for the next few years, you have to clean all your gear down before you move on to the rest of the crop. I think that means you have to scrub all the points with a scrubbing brush, but not really sure. It would be easier and cheaper for you to fence off 400 metres of your boundary.

Either way, it is your responsibility to keep an eye out for any canola that you think is GM and spray it whenever you see some volunteers pop up as they flower all year round. You are meant to ring either Bayer Cropscience or Monsanto and they can tell you what to spray it with and I think they register you so they can check if you have controlled contamination.

I am going to plant Roundup Ready so you will have to start using Sprayseed as a pre-emergent and 2,4-D in your post emergent mix. Be careful you don't kill your newly planted trees though because we all know what damage 2,4-D does to the trees.

You will be pleased to know that this rigmarole has been very well regulated and should keep contamination under 1% in the first year. That is using Canadian experiences but I suppose without the snow to control volunteers and of course with our sheep to spread it around, it will be quite a bit worse in Australia.

I keep trying to tell you that it is best that you don’t grow your own seed or sell as non-GM. I think it is wrong that you are taking this so personally.

Regards, GM neighbour.

To Non-GM neighbour,

You should not have told your son he can no longer sell yabbies for pocket money just because we grow GM. Tell your son not to bully my son over this and my wife is still upset over how rude your wife was to her in front of the school. It's a small town, we have to get on.

It's not our fault you know, we were all told not to worry about markets because if consumers can't buy uncontaminated product, they will have to accept contamination eventually. Now consumers are saying they don’t want to buy canola oil at all because they are buying other oils that are not GM.

It is not all easy for us either you know. I have been told that I can’t sell my sheep if they are on a property with GM and can’t even get freight for them after our crop sets seed so have to sell them now before harvest.

My wife warned me that you might not be too happy about this but our industry leaders said you have to expect a bit of a change in your farming practises in the interests of good science and we were all told Biotechnology is going to bring great advances. It is funny that I asked for a variety that used the genomics and marker genes that we were told were so great in the biotechnology promotions. I thought they were talking about GM but apparently they could be achieved in non-GM after all. Even the yield benefits for Bayer Cropscience Invigor Canola did not explain very well that the extra yield was from hybrid breeding which can be done in non-GM anyway. The main GM bit is the chemical resistance which can be done in non-GM too (like Triazine Tolerant canola), our weeds are getting resistant to chemicals so it shouldn't be too hard to make canola resistant to it using conventional breeding.

My crop doesn’t look as good as yours anyway so it doesn’t look like I am going to be a winner after all. They didn't explain that there is a yield drag and that GM doesn't perform well at all if you don't have an ideal season. I wish there was some independent comparisons that I could have seen before I introduced it. When I complained, I was told that if I looked at the Monsanto website I would have seen that best of the Roundup Ready yielded 17% less than the Australian average canola crop so I should have expected it. I should have checked the figures properly. The government is saying they warned us because the Productivity Commission said yield benefits only averaged 1% with no significant reduction of costs. These figures from Canada are a little misleading as Canada has a 3 month shorter growing season so you would think they would benefit more from no delays with pre-emergent spraying.

Have you seen the Monsanto contract? It is a real worry for us farmers, I did not realise what was involved but I had committed myself to growing it before I looked at it.

I just thought I would give GM a whirl to see how it went, I didn’t expect all these problems.

Your GM neighbour.