Fed: GM corn falls into Aust wheat shipment
CANBERRA, Feb 13 AAP - A bucketload of genetically altered corn has threatened Australianefforts to keep wheat exports free of GM produce.
The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) said today the GM corn, fromthe United States, fell from a conveyor belt while being shipped around the Appleton grainhandling facility in Melbourne this week.
An AQIS spokesman said the corn fell through a 15 centimetre wide fumigation hatch,landing on 13,500 tonnes of Australian wheat destined for export to Columbia.
He said service staff, concerned about a possible computer malfunction, checked thearea and found the small amount of GM corn lying on top of the wheat.
"The corn was removed in a type of vacuum, and then the silo was drained from the bottomwith the last few tonnes scanned to ensure it was free of any corn," he told AAP.
"It shows that our systems do work because the wheat was not contaminated."
Columbia, which imports around 1.5 million tonnes of GM corn from the US, was contactedto ensure it was happy with the way in which AQIS had dealt with the issue.
The GM corn is part of a 48,000 tonne shipment that has been brought to Australia tohelp farmers feed drought-hit stock.
The decision to import the grain has come under fire from GM opponents who have warnedof possible contamination.
GeneEthics Network director Bob Phelps said the Melbourne incident proved the dangerof importing GM products.
"We call for an end to GE grain imports for animals or humans," he said in a statement.
"Large GE-free grain supplies are available for animals in the drought, so we shouldn'trisk further pollution from imported US corn or soy."
AAP sw/sb/cjh/ts d
KEYWORD: GMO
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