Important to preserve GE free status

Contributed

Claire Bleakley

President of GE Free NZ

Sven Carlsson’s article (Beacon, December 4) is a wakeup call for New Zealand.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report commissioned by Organic Aotearoa NZ (OANZ) estimated that if GE was adopted, there would be a $10-20 billion dollar loss of export demand across all farming sectors.

The inaccuracies in Dr Rolleston’s quotes must be corrected if New Zealand farmers are to protect their economic livelihoods, regardless of whether they are organic, regenerative or want to stay non-GE.

1.     There are two main GE plants, herbicide or insecticide resistant.  These have led to superweeds and growing insect resistance due to the increased insecticide and herbicide use.  GE plants are now “stacked” with a cocktail of multiple herbicide and insecticide traits to compensate for this resistance. How will that affect our farmers?

2.     The record grain sales for Australia to Europe were non-GE, except for GE canola.  The December 2024 Grain Central market wire reported a  non-GM premium of $105 - $120/ton  (AUD) over GM canola.

3.     Australian GE cotton meal is used for livestock feed. The GE Safflower oil is developed for the industry manufacture of plastics, lubricants or cosmetics – not food.

4.     These reports for the Bangladesh GE eggplant premium are from industry promotion to get farmers to grow the GE variety.  Communities that have adopted the GE Bt eggplant have reported poor performance.  Also, the Bt eggplant is sold unlabelled, would consumers buy it if it was labelled?

5.     US farmers are having to grow GE crops to avoid losses from herbicide spray drift.  Recent reports have farmers going back to growing non-GM corn, however the seed is not pure as it has around 2-5 percent GE contamination.  So, the high farmer GE uptake is economic survival due to contamination.  They are also getting lower prices as most GE is sold for animal feed which does not need to be regulated. New Zealand requires all GE stock feed to be denatured so it is non-viable.

6.     He has ignored the high cost to the taxpayer of the New Zealand GE field trials, all of which failed to be commercially viable. GE plants have failed to show reliable performance in yield, or resistance to pests and diseases. In addition to this, GE animals have suffered from gross deformities, spontaneous abortions and sterility.

7.     The Gene Technology Bill will exempt a range of GE plants from regulation and labelling; remove the precautionary principle; exempt the GM farmer from liability for contamination; impose costs for genetic pollution by making councils and non-GM farmers clean up the contamination; ban communities from declaring GE-free region and mean exports of non GM will have to be stringently tested.  There will be a loss of our zero tolerance of GE imports.

8.     In California, the Federal District Court recently ruled that genetically engineered (GE) organisms must be regulated.

The Government is on a race to take New Zealand farming to the bottom with the Gene Technology Bill.

New Zealand farmers are proud of their high-quality foods, our global markets and customers rely on this assurance.  It is worth preserving our GE free status so “No to GE”

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