Two Australian organic farmers have lost a landmark legal case on genetically modified crop contamination.

Farmers Steve and Susan Marsh took a neighbour, Michael Baxter, to court after their crops were contaminated by GM oilseed rape which they feared had blown onto their property. The case had dragged on for three years before the Supreme Court of Western Australia dismissed the Marshes' claim on Wednesday.

Asked if he felt for his neighbour, GM farmer Baxter said, "He [Steve] had choices, and he obviously made the wrong choices. So..." Baxter was confronted by anti-GM activists chanting "Shame on you" when he left the court in Perth.

As a result of the contamination, the Marshes were prevented from selling their oat crops and lamb as certified organic. The Marshes were seeking an injunction preventing their neighbour from planting GM crops in future, as well as compensation.  

The court ruled that Baxter was not to be held responsible for the contamination as he was growing a legal product, contamination could have happened in a number of ways, and there was no physical harm reported to the Marshes or their animals.

The landmark case will chill organic farm groups, who have traditionally opposed GM crops on the grounds that contamination could harm their businesses. Justice Kenneth Martin, who presided over the case, said "Mr Baxter [cannot] be held responsible, in law, for the reactions to the incursion of the Marshes' organic certification body, NCO, which in the circumstances presented to be an unjustifiable reaction to what occurred."

In Europe, anti-GM sentiment is more widespread, particularly in France, one of the eight EU countries in which GM crops have been outlawed. Over 50 anti-GM protestors were cleared in the French Court of Appeal earlier this month, of their part in 'decontaminating' an open-air trial of GM grape vines. The Court ruled that the trial had been illegal, because authorities had not assessed the potential environmental risk posed by the trial.

Last week, activists tore up a GM oilseed rape trial in the Charente-Maritime region.

Earlier in the month, the French government finalised a "definitive" ban on GM crops, the latest in a line of contested measures designed to prevent the planting of Monsanto's MON810 maize (currently the EU's only licensed GM crop) on French soil. The strengthened measures were also intended to oppose a newer maize variety, TC1507, which could be licensed in the coming months.

Commenting on the Australian court case, Soil Association head of policy Emma Hockridge said on Wednesday, "We are very disappointed that Steve Marsh has lost his court case today. It shows that if GM crops are ever grown in England, home-produced organic farming and food are at risk unless the Government acts to ensure they are protected from contamination by GM crops.

"Farmers should have the choice to grow non-GM crops without facing the costs of contamination, and without having to take neighbours to court to try and protect their livelihood. The case shows how growing GM crops can set farmer against farmer. The outcome of the case strengthens the argument for the Government in England to introduce laws which make it unnecessary for farmers to sue their neighbours, and to make GM companies responsible for any contamination their products cause.

"Farmers and the public deserve to choose the kind of future they want for our food, agriculture and countryside, and the risks they are willing to take. This ruling is further evidence that once GM crops are out in the environment they cannot be contained, so they deny farmers and the public that choice."