The CSIRO has denied it has links to global agricultural biotech giant Monsanto as it deplored a Greenpeace attack on its experimental crop station in Canberra.
Greenpeace activists, in protective hazard suits, destroyed a trial GM wheat crop at the station in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The attack has been condemned by CropLife, a body which represents the science plant industry. Advertisement: Story continues below
It accused Greenpeace of being more interested in "emotional blackmail and spin doctoring" than global food security and public policy decision making.
The attack came after CSIRO denied a Freedom of Information request for more information about the trials, Greenpeace said.
It has called on CSIRO to reveal what financial arrangements it has with GM companies such as the US-based multinational Monsanto.
"The only reason our CSIRO is putting it in the ground is because they've been bought out by foreign GM companies," Greenpeace campaigner Laura Kelly told AAP.
Australia's $4.7 billion wheat export industry was too important to hand over to foreign GM companies, she said.
CSIRO plant industry chief Jeremy Burdon said there was no link between the trial wheat crop and Monsanto.
