A debate that's crucial on many levels is just starting to heat up in Australia, says Margaret Evans

You thought the GM debate had gone quiet in Australia? Think again. Have you noticed those news stories scattered here and there in the media recently preparing us for the advent of GM crops in Australia? The suggestion that "independent panels" will be reviewing the existing moratoriums in place on the commercial plantings of GM crops? I've read recently that Victoria is expecting a report by its independent panel in February next year, that NSW is anticipating its panel will report in time for the expiry of its own moratorium in March and that Western Australia is now being pressured to fast track its own review so it doesn't slow down the "progress" in this contentious area. Currently, but for how much longer, Queensland is the only State to have gone down that bumpy GM road.

And while the ground is being prepared, across our nation, for "genetically modified" (somehow the term "genetically engineered" seems to speak more truly of the artificiality of this process) food crops, we also see even our consumer organisations casting doubts on anything organic or natural. In its July issue, Choice magazine, the mouthpiece of the Australian Consumers Association, warns us that we're being overcharged because there's no evidence that organic food is nutritionally better. We're also advised to look for "certified" organic foods if we want the best value for our money.

Of course that's good advice - any moderately savvy consumer of anything wants to know they're getting what they pay for and surely no commodity is more important than the food we put in our mouths. But we're entitled to ask what is Choice seriously suggesting here - that we keep on buying conventionally farmed fruit, vegetables, eggs and meat with all the compromised integrity involved in those processes until such time as organic producers can come up with some cast iron approval process? The very fact that whole supermarket aisles are now devoted to organic products (following the long established lead of wholefood and health stores in this country) shows that consumers are starting to make that choice for themselves. And perhaps the realisation is beginning to dawn that certified organic food is worth that little bit extra we may have to pay - in terms of health and environmental benefits.

At least the concern on our behalf has spurred Australia's organic growers into action on the political front where I strongly suspect they'd rather not be wasting their passion and energy. The Biological Farmers of Australia, representing Australian certified organic growers, has hit the nail on the head in its response in August: "The call comes at a time when research into holistic farming systems, biological and organic farming systems, and related "public benefit" production systems remains relatively neglected in comparison to huge investments into patentable research such as GMOs, new chemicals and similar products which is driving the culture of modern Australian institutions including the CSIRO, DPIs etc."

"Incredibly complex research" into the nutritional value of organic versus conventionally produced foods, the group suggests, masks other important issues at play. "With such an approach, we risk overlooking the obvious benefits when no synthetic pesticides are used, when the focus in farming is on soil nutrition and balance and when other arguably less tangible but very real outcomes such as animal welfare issues are front and centre of organic production requirements." The statement from the Biological Farmers of Australia continues: "This leadership shown by the organic sector should be affirmed and supported - which it is by consumers who recognise that there is more to food than simply its nutritional status."

They say that adversity brings out the underlying strength - maybe this is that watershed time for organic farming in Australia. In the absence of any tangible support at a bureaucratic or big business level, once again we rely on the informed and determined individual. And, I've been immensely impressed and heartened this month in reading the impassioned words of American author, poet and backyard gardener supreme, Barbara Kingsolver in her latest book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating".

Just in case that GM pause in Australia has lulled us into a state of complacency -- let's face it, it goes with the sunshine and barbies -- Kingsolver and her husband, environmental studies lecturer Steven Hopp, add a dollop of harsh reality to that deceptively enticing GM corn cob. The message that emerges from this book is that we must actively seize control of the food that we put into our mouths - and those of our families and their children in the future. If we don't act to preserve a diversity of food sources - Kingsolver uses the term "heritage" species with its implicit suggestion that such foods are already on the way out and many, many species of plants and animals have, in fact, already disappeared from our planet -- the future is one of culinary and nutritional impoverishment, both in choice and quality.

Kingsolver, author of the acclaimed novel "The Poisonwood Bible" among others, is one of those impressive people who, when she sees a problem, doesn't just bemoan the situation. She does something about it - in this case, with her family's equally passionate support - up and leaving their home in Tucson, Arizona to relocate to a small acreage in the southern Appalachians on the other side of a big continent. While they'd been mulling the decision for some time, drawn by a sense of community and "coming home", the spur was Tucson's third consecutive year of drought. The reality suddenly hit home that while this rapidly growing city in the desert could provide all their material comforts, food - and water - was another matter. It's sobering to read that virtually all of Tucson's food is trucked in from "somewhere far away" and that "every ounce of the city's drinking, washing and goldfish-bowl-filling water is pumped from a nonrevewable source - a fossil aquifer that is dropping so fast, sometimes the ground crumbles." The parallels with our own parched continent of vast distances and year-round water restrictions are hard to ignore.

Kingsolver's love of the land and impressive ability to nurture all living things - animal, vegetable and human, too (her family and friends eat fabulously well as we can judge from her daughter's recipes that illustrate each chapter) - is both poetic and inspiring. During their year on their Virginia farm, they live out their dream of reducing their ecological footprint as much as possible by growing their own food and eating only local produce. What's equally important, I think, is that Kingsolver is no hayseed. She is a serious author and sought-after speaker who maintains a disciplined writing schedule even while coping with the demands of growing crops, pulling weeds, preserving fruits and vegetables, inventing original ways of cooking the mountains of tomatoes and squash that sprout from their fertile soils, "harvesting" their own animals and even nursemaiding turkeys into breeding successfully, a feat in itself as "turkey mating has gone the way of rubberised foundation garments and the drive-in movie."

The passion is infectious in this book, and the family's example of their year of seasonal eating has something for us all, even those of us still wedded to our city lives. But along with the inspiring personal example, there is a serious undertone, one that echoes the cautionary advice of that other thought-provoking book, Jane Goodall's "Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating". The GM spectre looms large in both, along with the pervasive sense that in many parts of the world, the US, Europe, Canada, even parts of Asia and Africa, it's a juggernaut crushing all in its path. Even without GM, the loss of diversity and crop species across the world is staggering, and largely unremarked.

When you read some of the examples, that language doesn't seem remotely extreme. Here are just a handful to start you thinking:

• Ten years ago, Indian farmers grew many species of oil crops such as sesame and linseed. In 1998, all the small mills that processed these crops were ordered to close and, coincidentally, a ban was lifted on imported soy oil. Millions of farmers lost their livelihoods and GM soy found a huge new market.
• Thanks to the loss of heirloom species and their replacement with hybrids, US consumers have lost 99 per cent of the vegetable varieties available to them a century ago.
• In 2005, 167 million acres worldwide were planted with GM crops, mainly corn, cotton, soybeans and canola. The US is the world's top producer of GM foods: 81 per cent of its soy, 40 per cent of its corn, 73 per cent of its canola and 73 per cent of its cotton is GM.
• Indian crop ecologist Vandana Shiva tells us that humans have eaten 80,000 plant species over our history. Now, 75 per cent of all human food comes from just eight species and that's rapidly narrowing down to GM corn, soy and canola.
• The ultimate genetic modification, the "terminator" gene, prevents a crop producing any viable seed. The farmer has no choice but to rebuy all his seed the following season. Six companies - Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Mitsui, Aventis and Dow - now control 98 per cent of the world's seed sales.
• One of the most common GM crops in the US is "Bt corn". This is corn that has been altered to make its own bacterial toxin (Bacillus thuringiensis) that is present in every cell and kills any insect that eats it.
• Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser spent six years and $400,000 to fight a claim bought against him by Monsanto of patent infringement when they found some of their GM canola seed in crops growing along a roadside ditch on his farm. Schmeiser's defence was that he had never bought Monsanto's seeds, and the contamination had been caused by pollen drift. Schmeiser lost his battle and Monsanto's patent claim was upheld. However, as the farmer didn't profit from his "infringement", the Canadian Supreme Court ruled he did not have to pay Monsanto any compensation.

The list goes on, but it's timely to take a pause here and realise that this is the case that has roused great concern both within Canada and many other countries including Australia. The issue of unavoidable contamination by patented seeds lies at the heart of Australian farmers' completely justified concerns about going that GM route. And being GM-free rather than being yet another economy that's been swallowed up by the juggernaut of agribusiness is, increasingly, being seen as a major market advantage. At least by some. So as those newspaper headlines and TV bites gain increasing stridency in the next few months, spare a thought for Percy Schmeiser, Indian oil crop farmers, subsistence farmers all over the world who have to buy their patented seed all over again every year, the beetle that dares to munch on a Bt corn cob - and think how lucky we are!

Recommended reading:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal eating by Barbara Kingsolver, Faber&Faber, RRP $29.95
Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall, Warner Books