OPINION | Business SA put the issue of GM (genetically modified) crops in the spotlight and opened up an opportunity to lay the facts out as they really are. 

SA's new premier, Jay Weatherill, won't need a survey to know where the voters stand on government policy that protects SA's food producers' clean and green image.

Business SA may well be wishing the call to drop the GM crop ban in SA had never made it to the front page of the Advertiser newspaper (19/10/11) as the response from the SA public was swift and robust.

It came from a wide demographic of well informed individuals who overwhelmingly took a GM-free stance. 

The position of maintaining the GM crop moratorium in SA is also supported by the Liberals and Greens.

Ten years ago if you had asked the public in the street their opinion on genetically engineered food many wouldn't have known what you were talking about. 

Today whether you call it GE, GM or genetically modified food, most people have an opinion and their opinion more often than not is based on fact. 

In their collective letters to the editor and on-line comments, the public identified a wide range of issues concerning GM food and crops including:

INSERTING bacterial DNA into food crops in order to produce herbicide tolerance and Bt toxins

LACK of food safety testing

PATENTING of seeds

EXPENSE to farmers in buying GM seeds

COST and restrictions imposed by the license to grow

LOSS of a premium paid for non-GM crops and contamination of conventional seed and crops.

Within months of the first commercially grown GM canola being planted in WA in 2010, farmer Steve Marsh lost his organic certification when GM seed contaminated two-thirds of his arable land. 

He believed seed may have blown in from a neighbouring farm. 

With Kangaroo Island already claiming a premium price from the Japanese market for its canola, SA stands to benefit from WA's demise. 

Just over a week ago Australia was visited by a Japanese consumer cooperative seeking GM-free supplies of canola.

Clearly, the best future for SA is a GM-free future.

Pola Lekstan is a Member of SA Genetic Food Information Network (SAGFIN). www.sagfin.org.au