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Australian farm specialist loses job for speaking against GM crops

A leading specialist on biological farming in Australia recently accused the country's top scientific body throwing him out because he had voiced his opposition to genetically modified (gm) crops.

Maarten Stapper, a principal research scientist and expert on soil health, had worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (csiro) for 23 years. He complained that senior officials at csiro bullied and harassed him and tried to gag his criticisms of gm crops. He left in March 2007 after his position with csiro's plant industry division was made redundant. csiro has denied the claims.