First farmer loses crop to GM

A WA oat and wheat grower has become the first farmer to lose his organic certification after his crop was contaminated by a neighbour's genetically modified canola crop.

In a statement by shadow agriculture minister Mick Murray, it was reported tthat 60 per cent of Kojonup farmer Stephen Marsh's property had been contaminated by the GM crop.

"Mr Marsh now faces the financial and time-consuming burden of eradicating all traces of GM canola from his property and quarantining his stock to be deemed an organic farm again," Mr Murray said.

The shadow minister said the only avenue for Mr Marsh to reclaim some of these costs is buying pursuing his neighbour in court.

The government had previously stated there were sufficient safeguards in place to protect cross-contamination between GM and non-GM crops, after overturning a ban on GM crops at the beginning of this year.