End of GM ban ‘a great step forward’ for NSW farmers, biotech companies, grains group says

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Biotech lobby group CropLife is hailing the lifting of a ban on genetically modified (GM) food crops in New South Wales as a “great step forward”, but after 18 years in limbo the state’s agricultural sector has some catching up to do.

Around the world, the growth in GM crops is beginning to accelerate.

Almost 200 million hectares of GM crops were planted in 2019 in 29 countries, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a non profit group working to share biotechnology with developing countries.

“Biotech crops are considered the fastest adopted crop technology in the history of modern agriculture,” it said in a 2019 report.