Question Without Notice No. 243 asked in the Legislative Council on 6 April 2011 by Hon Lynn Maclaren
Parliament: 38 Session: 1
GENETICALLY MODIFIED WHEAT — FUNDING
243. Hon LYNN MacLAREN to the minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to the Premier’s recent statement that he did not support genetically modified wheat.
(1) In the past two years how much funding has the government allocated to GM wheat research?
(2) In the past two years how much funding has the government allocated to non-GM wheat breeding techniques such as marker assisted selection?
(3) Does the government intend to discontinue its funding of GM wheat research, given the market rejection of this product?
(4) Is the minister aware of the recent United Nations report “Agro-ecology and the right to food”, which shows that small-scale farmers can double food production in a decade by using simple ecological methods?
(5) How much funding has the government allocated to researching ecological methods of increasing productivity?
Hon ROBYN McSWEENEY replied:
I do not have the answer to that question here. I have one question from the member, but I have not seen that one. If I find it, I will read it out later.