The Supreme Court of Western Australia has dismissed a case from an organic farmer who was claiming damages for a neighbour’s genetically modified (GM) canola drifting onto his farm and losing him his organic certification.
Steve Marsh was claiming A$85,000 (£47,000) in damages against Michael Baxter for losing his right to sell his grain and sheep as organic because winds had blown seeds from Baxter’s GM canola onto his property at Eagles Rest, Kojonup, in south-western Australia.
Marsh was also looking for the court to issue an injunction banning Bxter from planting non-organic crops in the future to prevent the issue from reoccurring.
However, Justice Kenneth Martin dismissed the case and held that Baxter had not unreasonably interfered with March’s crops and had only claimed for for financial loss, as his farmland and livestock had not sustained physical damage.
In his judgement, Martin said:
GM canola only posed a risk of transferring genetic material if a canola seed germinated in the Eagles Rest soil…and then later cross-fertilised through its pollen being exchanged with another compatible species
He found that Baxter could not be held responsible for damages caused by growing a legal crop on his own land and harvesting using the long-established method of swathing or the loss of organic certification by his neighbour.
