Alex 

After becoming a mum my awareness and interest in food and health grew exponentially. I discovered that GMOs may contribute to many illnesses, allergies and afflictions plaguing our lives, and became determined to be a part of the solution. I see the GMFAA as a crucial organisation in uniting the GM-Free movement in Australia and leading us all to a GM-Free future.

Maree 

Maree first became interested in GMOs in 1999 after discovering the amassing and patenting of all seeds by Monsanto in what seemed like the beginning of full genetic modification of all seeds for control of the original seed bank. With this leading to the changing of seeds to be non-reproductive and thus farmers and gardeners having to repurchase seeds every year rather than using last years seeds, Maree decided to look further. It’s due to this that she has endeavoured to uncover more about the changes to our food seeds and production. As an adult educator and being raised in the country she has worked to generate awareness around keeping our food and seeds non-genetically modified whilst promoting awareness around the growth of these.

She has been connected with GMFAA for the past 10 years in discussions with Alex and came on board as the Vice Chair a few years ago to assist  Alex Mijatovic to develop the GMO free True Food Guide. In 2024 she took on the role of Chair to continue to work with Alex and the team to continue this mission, creating awareness around keeping our bodies GM free from food and other things we put into our bodies.  We wish to do this through food, reviewing legislation and assisting companies to promote their GM Free foods.

Dan

I have been involved in the GMfree movement in one way or another for over 15 years becoming a member of Foodwatch WA in 2012 and participating in protest marches before that. After learning about Genetic Modification in our food sources I was horrified at the lack of study and oversight from governing bodies such as FSANZ that simply relied on the companies directly benefiting from the products being pushed to advise them of the safety of said products. It does not take a genius to acknowledge that this is dangerous behaviour as there is no way in telling what kind of impact releasing genetically modified plants and animals into the environment could have.

The GMOS are made to attempt to be able to use more pesticides on the farms which reduces the microbes in the soil leading to dead soil and erosion and death of insect species both beneficial such as bees and the less beneficial. This made me feel as we could be sleep walking into the next extinction level event for the Earth. Globalists and Monsanto CEO Hugh GRANT were making statements such as “We need GMOS to feed the world” this was false as there is enough food on the planet to feed every one of which most ends in landfill this made me think that the issue was distribution rather than needing to make more food with pesticides. 

As I was on a property that was made of sand I decided to experiment with different natural techniques of growing food without using any pesticides or GMOS. I used some naturally occurring processes in nature such as sandwich gardening and I collected food scraps from local shopping centres and coffee shops to make compost for growing crops. I also designed and built an Aquaponics system that farmed fish while using the fish waste to grow vegetables. All of this was completely organic and led me to winning multiple awards for tomatoes, egg plants and other vegetables grown in my garden for largest size and best taste categories. I feel confident that I can outgrow any GMO product simply by using natural processes which has inspired me to buy larger land to try larger scale farming organically.

I currently live in Western Australia and want to help steer other farmers away from poisoned crops and GMOS and back towards normal farming techniques that can yield far better profits and healthier food that everyone can be proud of steering profits away from chemical companies and back to farmers.

Michelle