Free and Fair Trade in Seed

For many years the Australian Seed Federation (ASF) has championed all members’ right to operate free of unfair competitive behaviour. The ultimate in unfair competitive behaviour is where one industry deliberately develops policies that threaten the free and fair trade of others. The organic industry has been participating in this kind of behaviour since it introduced a zero tolerance standard to one single method of plant breeding called genetic modification.

A recent court case in Western Australia (Marsh v Baxter) tested this unfair standard. In this case an organic certified farmer claimed that he had lost his organic status due to GM Canola (Rape Seed) contamination from his non-organic neighbour. The court found in favour of the defendant, the non-organic farmer, and thus in favour of free and fair trade between all in the supply chain. This case sends the strongest message possible to the organic standards organisations worldwide that they must stop the practice of creating standards that are impractical and ideological in nature.

The principle of coexistence of all crops, no matter how they were developed is one that the ASF developed during deliberations to create a strategy for the introduction of GM Canola. The word “Coexistence” is now used throughout the world as the term for free and fair trade in plant industries. ASF participates at many levels and in many organisations to further promote our free and fair trade principles.

At the ASF convention this year we ran a training and information seminar where the free and fair trade principals and activities, along with other seed industry specific topics, was discussed and explained. Over 70 industry members participated which makes this training event the most popular ever run.

Donald Coles

President

Australian Seed Federation