From Australian Food News: Australians “uncomfortable” with GM food

The headline might be a bit misleading. Because a big part of what the story actually says is not that Australians are uncomfortable with GM food per se, but that they’re uncomfortable with the institutions promoting GM foods:

Australians remain uneasy about eating genetically modified (GM) foods, according to research from Swinburne University.
The University’s fifth National Science and Technology Monitor found most people well informed about GM but still very mistrustful of the institutions that commercialise GM foods.
“A major target of public mistrust is Monsanto, the world’s biggest seed company that owns patents on over 90% of all commercial GM soy, corn, canola and cotton crops that are grown,” Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps asserted.

Frankly, I’m sympathetic to that worry. And though I have practically no worries about GM foods, and few (but not no) worries about GM crops, I’ve got much more significant worries about the current patterns of commercialization, and about Monsanto’s increasing control over the seed industry.