Maitland will hold the city's first Genetically Modified food forum on Thursday in a bid to fight back against the federal government's plan to allow more Genetically Modified Organisms into the food chain.
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Austin Breiner - a vegetable farmer from Oakhampton, is one of the producers lined up to speak. He only uses heirloom varieties - seeds that have not been Genetically Modified.
"The long-term impact on health is everybody's concern - it's the 30,40,50 year time lag before you know if there are any dangers with them. I'm old enough to remember doctors telling people to take up smoking to calm their nerves and that turned out to be bad for them," Mr Breiner said.
"If you go back in time there are lots of things people thought were good and later down the track it was found out they were quite problematic."
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Slow Food Hunter Valley Maitland Earth Market chairwoman Amorelle Dempster will give the opening address at the event and share Slow Food's position, the threat to biodiversity and the affect on small-scale farmers.
Maitland Greens member Jan Davis, Slow Food Hunter Valley leader Anne Kelly, farmer Matt Dennis, biodynamic baker Simon Brownbridge and permaculture expert Michelle Higgins will also speak.
Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting in Maitland at Coquun at 5pm.
The Gene Technology Amendment bill will be put before federal senators on September 17.
"On the surface Genetically Modified foods are solving a lot of problems - it is creating more food, creating food without the need to use a lot of pesticides and herbicides. It is presumably a wonderful thing but we don't know what the long-term affects are going to be," Mr Breiner said.
The other problem for Mr Breiner is the future of heirloom crops.
"They are being phased out because they aren't seen as being productive enough - and the Genetically Modified ones are owned by the company who has the patent for them so farmers aren't allowed to resow their own seeds," he said.
"We are going to lose a lot of heirloom varieties unless people decide to take them on."