Trust The GE Science – Whose?

Friday, 20 September 2024, 5:22 am
Press Release: GE Free NZ

19 September

Whose science do we trust?
Experimental trials of genetically engineered (GE) organisms
showing failure, or the industry science spin, massaging out
the failures and pretending all is fine. Science and
Technology Minister
Judith Collins has directed the Ministry for the
Environment (MfE) to remove the ethical and precautionary
approach from the proposed updated GE Bill. Furthermore, she
has used the Resource Management Act to prevent local
councils from declaring their right to have GE Free
regions.

“By removing the ethical and precautionary
approach, this allows the Bio-tech developers to ignore the
proper scientific process,” said Claire Bleakley. “It
allows the release of patented, dangerous, polluting GE
organisms into the farming and horticultural environment,
failing New Zealand’s primary
industries.”

Ethical and precautionary
legislation on GE organisms is in place to demonstrate the
safety of New Zealand food production. This legislation was
accepted by the National Government in 1996, after the
Environment Minister
Simon Upton had assisted with writing the Hazardous
Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act. The HSNO Act
clearly set out the safety conditions that need to be met
before release. This legislation never banned outdoor field
tests of GMOs.

Since 1996 there have been
13 GE field trials in NZ. All of these trials were contained
and monitored. Such field trials come before a conditional
release. If these trials had demonstrated that the GMOs were
safe for the environment and economic livelihoods, a full
release an application would have been submitted. As the
field trials never showed the GMOs to grow well, or to be
safe, they never progressed further. The failures of these
GE field trials have been hushed up and the Government is
pretending that all is well.

New Zealand Crown
Research Institutes (Crop and Food, AgResearch and Scion )
received public and private funding to trial GE plants and
animals. To date, all have been many breaches
and GE crop commercial failures. Some of these failures
include the GE Brassica plants (Crop and Food) that went to
flower and had a fungal disease. Flowering was not permitted
in the conditions of this trial, as GE pollen could easily
cross-pollinate nearby non-GE Brassica plants. Conditions of
the trial were breached and the surrounding growers and seed
producers were put at risk. The trial was closed
down.

We cannot rely on the Ruakura Animal Ethics
Committee (RAEC). They turned a blind eye to animal cruelty
with AgResearch
GE animals. The RAEC saw the animals suffer from high
spontaneous abortion rates and sterility. There were also
life-threatening deformities in calves. Surrogate mother
cows had a 0-7% birth rate, with many calves, goats and
lambs dying within 48 hours of being born.

AgResearch
GE ryegrass was trialled in the USA, (2018-2022), at a cost
of $25 million. This ryegrass resulted in poor yields,
failing to meet the projected outcomes. It is now being
grown in a laboratory, which does not replicate
environmental conditions.

All of the trials were to
involve feeding trials as well, but due to poor outcomes, it
appears that feeding trials have not been conducted. Can we
trust assurances of safety by the Crown Research Institute
(CRI) product developers, who get funding by the
biotechnology industry?

Collins blames “restrictive
rules and time-consuming processes” and she is following
“global best practice.” This directly contradicts the
“best practice” that we currently have in the HSNO
Act.

“We cannot trust the Government’s talk of
“global best practice,” as it will mean unregulated
release of GMOs and corporate capture. Removing all
protection and safety rules does not mean GE is suddenly
safe,” said Bleakley “It is incomprehensible that the
Government is ignoring the NZ field trial science that has
shown GE will fail New Zealand. The government is jumping on
a broken bandwagon and the costs will be worn by the farmer
and processor.”

New Zealand’s regenerative organic
and conventional horticultural and agricultural sectors grow
products that are of the highest quality, GE-free and
internationally sought after. It is their duty to ensure
that GE-free production, public participation, and challenge
are
preserved.

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