In light of the Federal Government’s recent deregulation of the Gene Editing technique known as SDN-1, Australian Organic Ltd has issued an Update to the Australian Certified Organic Standard.
The move by our Government means that organisms that have been engineered using this method, will not be considered a “GMO” under Australian Law, and hence not regulated by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR). However, the Organic Industry globally opposes this classification, and as such will continue to exclude organisms engineered using this method from Organic production.
The update issued today ensures this is clearly stipulated in our Standard. Australian Organic has also made a submission to the National Standards Sub Committee to update wording in the National (Export) Standard to help maintain Organic export markets. We will continue to engage and work with Industry and Government on this issue as it develops.
Please click on the link below to learn more about the ACOS update:
Notification 1903: Update to the Australian Certified Organic Standard Gene Editing SDN-1
