The GM moguls advance with Weidemann et al assisting

According to The Age on 11 September 2008, Rupanyup farmer Andrew Weidemann brags that:

Much of his 92 hectares of GM canola is now in flower and is on track for harvest in about 11 weeks.

Now this farmer's crop reads as if it was first intended as non-commercial:
To allow a detailed comparison of the 10 canola varieties on his farm, all were planted in the same paddock on the same day in early May, in distinct plots.
Yesterday about 20 farmers from South Australia visited Mr Weidemann's farm to inspect the GM canola. South Australian law prohibits commercial production of GM canola.

In February this year he told ABC News that:
"There is an up-front fee that we pay and you can grow as many acres as the seed is available for this year and there is a royalty payment on the end which is the best situation in rewarding the researcher, the marketeer and the grower," Mr Weidemann said.

The Commonwealth Office of Gene Technology states that there is a current licence granted to Bayer Crop Science Pty Ltd which cover amongst other areas, Rupanyup and Wimmera.
So one might wonder if Andrew Weidemann, now VFF grains group deputy president, was originally in partnership with Bayer or affiliates.

Either way, Weidemann joins the ranks of those Australia may learn to curse in the future.

Here is a 1995 photo and brief bio of this foolish man who thinks that simply everyone will buy GM food if it is cheaper (found at the Birchip Cropping Group).

Mr Andrew Weidemann Farming 2500ha with his family in the Victorian Wimmera, producing a range of pulses, cereals, oilseeds and fat lambs, Andrew is a dedicated community member. He holds a range of positions with the VFF, currently the Wimmera District Council Grains Councillor, and is current President of the Rupanyup Football and Netball Club. Andrew is an inaugural Committee member on the 1st Bendigo Bank Community Bank. He has held past positions of VFF Rupanyup Branch President and Wimmera Farming Systems Deputy Chairman. Andrew has an Advanced Diploma of Agriculture, was the 2000 recipient of the Wimmera Conservation Farming James Muller Award and 2000 recipient of the Powercor Best Achievement in Primary Production....
Email: weidpast@wimmera.com.au. t 03 54922787 f 03 54922753

Monsanto, another GM giant operating in Australia, is not having much luck in France these days.

Apparently this is the first year that all its French GM test sites have been destroyed by activists.

At the same time the film The World According to Monsanto is actively circulating with a bad PR look for this company:

How much outrage can a single multinational corporation inspire? How much damage can they inflict? The breathtaking new film, The World According to Monsanto, features a company that sets the new standard. From Iowa to Paraguay, from England to India, Monsanto is uprooting our food supply and replacing it with their patented genetically engineered creations. And along the way, farmers, communities, and nature become collateral damage.

Seeds of Deception has also released a pdf document listing where in your personal food and grocery item chain GMO ingredients may be found once GM crops spread in Australia.

British court gives Greenpeace activists a 'lawful excuse' get-out-of-gaol-free card

WASHINGTON — A British Court today acquitted six Greenpeace volunteers for attempting to shut down a coal-fired power plant in Kent on the grounds that they had a "lawful excuse" because the coal plant was causing so much property damage around the world due to global warming that it exceeded the property damage done through shutting operations of the coal plant.The Maidstone Crown Court heard testimony from NASA climate expert James Hansen, an Inuit leader from Greenland and the British Conservative Party's environment adviser. The jury was told that the Kingsnorth Power Plant emits 20,000 tons of CO2 every day - the same amount as the 30 least polluting countries in the world combined – and that the British Government had advanced plans to build a new coal-fired power station next to the existing site on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent.

Full Green Peace 11 September 2008 media release.

Should NSW Premier Nathan Rees be worried?

And now for something completely ridiculous

With a recent internal dispute over an academic reverend's pro-Creationism stance disturbing the harmony of the Royal Society, I decided to have a look at what religious websites were saying on the subject.

I didn't get past the first one (run by the United Church of God) because in defence of Creationism it actually quoted at length a deceased, former card-carry member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi), member of the Waffen SS and user of concerntration camp slave labour.

Now how can a bloke take seriously any argument that holds up Werner von Braun as a pattern card of ethical and reasoned debate?

Here is Reverend Prof Michael Reiss' article of September 11, which certainly upset the National Secular Society as well.

Before we all start to hoot at the folly of others Over There, remember this article from The Age in 2005?

"The controversial theory of "intelligent design" has won the qualified backing of Education Minister Brendan Nelson, who says it should be taught in schools alongside evolution if that is the wish of parents.
Intelligent design, which is damned by critics as a front for biblical Creationism, argues that life on Earth is too complex to have evolved purely through Darwin's theory of natural selection. Dr Nelson said yesterday he had met Campus Crusade for Christ, the Australian advocates of intelligent design, or ID, and watched their DVD presentation, called Unlocking the Mystery of Life."

Barack shows his true colours during US presidential race

While the McCain campaign is equally shameless, Barack Obama is beginning to show that he is no novice when it comes to slinging political mud.

This quote in the Herald Sun caught my eye this week.

BARACK Obama has ripped into 72-year-old John McCain calling him an out-of-touch economic illiterate who has slept through the internet revolution, as the war of words resumed on the White House trail.

Peter Sheehan's cartoon found at New Matilda.

A little Sunday art on the NSW North Coast

First View from Border Ranges

Savira McDonald

Ceramic artist

Grafton Regional Gallery

R.I.P. Possum Pollytics

Possum Comitatus has moved from his own site Possum Pollytics and is now part of the Crikey stable at Pollytics.com.

It is sad to see yet another very successful independent blog being absorbed into what is essentially the mainstream digital media.

With the best of intentions, true independence can be diminished by the needs of the new parent. Something Possum will have to guard against.
Previous visitors and participants on Possum Pollytics comment pages will notice the registration requirements on the new blog which add yet another level of basic data sharing.

September 11, 2008 – 1:48 pm, by Possum Comitatus

Welcome to the new and improved Pollytics - now powered by Crikey.

The first thing you might notice is that this is actually a proper Wordpress system, so dont freak right out by thinking that this place is run off the Crikey site system - it's all new and spiffy and decked out for blogging.

The proper launch is next week, so that's when everything starts working fully.

Over on the right you might notice a few spiffy, charty type things. They're all clickable and will take you through to specific pages dealing with each topic. There's Pollytrack which we all know, the Chart Dump is where all the Federal polling data fit to print is available, the US election still deals with Intrade, the Long View is an interactive history of the two party preferred vote going back to 1985 and the State maps and data graphics take you through to where various State based polling data is available.

Make sure you read the moderation policy – it explains the natural order of things.

To comment, you first need to register, which requires nothing more than a working email address. It's free to do so and the password to enable you to comment will be sent through to your email. Once registered, it allows you to not only comment here, but on other Crikey blogs - which you'll be hearing more about soon.

Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.

Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Canberra Politics Correspondent: Bernard Keane.
Business Commentator: Stephen Mayne.

Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975

NSW Local Government Elections 2008: Live result update links on the night

For the first time NSW local government electors will be able to follow the vote count online after polls close at 6pm on Saturday 13 September 2008.

Electoral Commission NSW live update information:

Election results

View election results and result information
View the LGCC Counting schedule

ABC Elections website/Antony Green here

* However, it should be noted that due to the NSW Government's Sydney-centric view of all things rural and regional, counting for some electorates on the Northern Rivers may not show a result before Wednesday or Thursday of next week as Returning Officers are being asked to multitask at an unsustainable level and physical counting of ballots is often occurring away from the electorates involved.