Posted Thu May 29, 2008 4:16pm AEST Updated Thu May 29, 2008 4:24pm AEST
Sydney chef Jared Ingersoll
At his inner Sydney restaurant, chef Jared Ingersoll pays close attention to how he sources his food.
"The milk comes from New South Wales. It's all small scale, local, I know the guys who do the food, I know the farms that it came from," he said.
"I know what their practices are so I'm really confident about the fact that this food is GM-free and I'd really like to keep it that way."
Mr Ingersoll says a large percentage of his customers have a bit of a social conscience when it comes to eating.
"They realise that if they want to eat good food and they want to be able to give that food to their children, we need to take a stand on certain things," he said.
"As far as genetically modified, I mean it's a very confusing and misinformed area.
"And so what we were hoping to achieve through this is to sort of give people the tools to educate themselves and put pressure on politicians and companies."
Mr Ingersoll is one of several chefs, who along with Greenpeace, have launched a GM-free chef's charter.
It calls for products with genetically modified ingredients to be labelled as such.
Michelle Sheather is the coordinator of Greenpeace Australia's genetic engineering campaign.
"The fact the GM canola has just been planted in Victoria and New South Wales just last month means that once that's harvested, for the first time we will be eating a GM food crop grown in Australia, in our food chain," she said.
"We haven't had this situation before so come the end of the year, for the first time, GM foods will be on our plates in Australia."
But why all the fuss? The debate on GM foods has been raging for years but the jury is still out on how the technology affects people's health.
Mr Ingersoll says he has heard enough to know that if he has a choice, he will not serve GM foods in his restaurant.
"What I'm calling for is through labelling and through raising people's awareness, that we can start doing some proper studies and some tests and human trials," he said.
"And there just seems to be this massive rush to get it happening without proper studies being put into it."
He says labelling will allow consumers to make an informed choice.
"Once people start buying and showing that they're against genetically modified, that's the biggest message that business can get," he said.
"Whether or not there's a really simple way to get the labelling and that communication across, that's not my field. I just know that given the choice, I would not buy genetically modified food.
Chefs Geraud Fabre (left), of France-Soir, and Paul Wilson, of the Botanical restaurant, have signed the GM-Free Chefs' Charter, urging diners to say no to GM restaurants. Photo: Jason South Advertisement
Annabel Stafford May 24, 2008 THE head chef of one of Melbourne's best-known restaurants has called on consumers to boycott establishments that don't commit to being GM-free.
"I know it sounds scary … but unless a massive amount of people go against (GM), nothing is going to be done to stop it," Geraud Fabre, head chef of France-Soir restaurant in South Yarra, says.
"I don't say it to get more customers, but I reckon … if people close their restaurants because there are no customers … it would make the Government realise they shouldn't (allow genetically modified crops in Australia)."
Fabre is one of a number of top chefs nationally who have signed an anti-GM chefs' charter designed to pressure state and federal governments to prevent the introduction of genetically engineered crops into Australia.
The GM-Free Chefs' Charter, a Greenpeace initiative, has also already been signed by Stephanie Alexander, Neil Perry, Kylie Kwong and Botanical restaurant's Paul Wilson, and chefs from around Australia will be urged to sign up. The charter, which will be released in full at a Sydney launch on Thursday, calls for strict labelling of GM foods. The chefs who sign up to it believe GM foods pose a risk to their clientele and the nation as a whole, it says.
"Because of the untested long-term risks associated with the growing and consumption of GM foods, we are strongly opposed to serving them — or ingredients derived from GM products — in our restaurants."
The launch of the charter comes just a month after Victorian farmers began sowing their first GM canola crops following the lifting of moratoriums on GM canola in Victoria and NSW.
The Victorian ban was lifted after the federal regulator concluded GM canola posed no unusual health risks and a review led by Victorian chief scientist Gustav Nossal estimated a continued ban would cost the state economy up to $115 million by 2016.
The Nossal report also dismissed fears that non-GM canola could be contaminated by GM canola or that the price of non-GM canola would drop if GM canola was grown close by.
Victorian grain grower Andrew Broad is testing herbicide-resistant GM canola on his Bridgewater farm after a study tour convinced him grain industries in Europe, the US and South America had suffered no ill effects from GM canola.
However, the technology would have to prove itself with bigger crop yields or greater profitably before he would plant it more widely on his farm, he said.
Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps said GM canola would put the environment and public health at risk, as well as threatening any premium Australian farmers enjoy from being able to market their crops as GM-free. And once GM canola had been introduced into Australia, it would quickly "conquer all and make everyone (farm) GM", he said.
Fabre, who first became concerned about GM crops about five years ago, said: "I reckon anybody with half a brain (knows) you shouldn't be trying something that you don't know the outcome of."
Wilson, Botanical's chef-director, agreed. "There has not been enough testing on humans and there hasn't been enough established research to prove it's not harmful to us," he said.
"We want to support (the campaign) … to separate ourselves from establishments that don't care. We want people to know we do care about the health of our customers."
