NEWS FROM AUSTRALASIA
1.WA premier calls for GM product ban
2.Deaf ear on GE feared
3.Outrage over GE crop call
4.NZ Farmers Warned Against GE Feed
EXTRACT: ...Steffan Browning said there was a feeling among anti-GE campaigners that the trials would be approved irrespective of the number and strength of submissions against them.
"Why put people through the angst and hassle (of making a submission)?" he said. "They're better off going in and pulling the crops out."
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1. WA premier calls for GM product ban
Annolies Truman
Australian News, Green Left Weekly issue #754, 11 June 2008
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/754/38977
On June 2, the West Australian reported that WA Premier Alan Carpenter had called for a nationwide suspension of approvals for foods containing genetically modified (GM) crops until more health research was carried out. Carpenter said the national food regulator, Food Standards Australia New Zealand should not approve any more food for human consumption until independent scientific trials were conducted to better determine the safety of GM foods.
The article quoted Carpenter as saying: "There are still unresolved issues and questions about the effect of genetically modified foods on human beings." He added that GM ingredients could be found in common foods including corn chips, breakfast cereals, taco shells, margarine, biscuits, soy products and oils.
On June 6 WA Conservation Council representative Dr Maggie Lilith presented the Carpenter government with a letter asking it to extend the current ban on GM crops, which will expire in early 2009 at the latest, for a further 10 years.
Last month Lilith attended an international conference on GM agriculture in Germany where she obtained signatures on the letter from representatives of 75 countries.
Lilith told Green Left Weekly that many of WA's export markets rejected GM crops. "These markets will be lost to Australia with the adoption of GM agriculture", she said. "In 10 years time we can base a decision regarding GM crops on independent scientific research into the impacts ”¦ on people and the environment."
Say No to GMO activist Janet Grogan told GLW: "It's fantastic the premier has raised the labelling issue. This is extremely important, but we must keep pushing for the moratorium on growing GMO crops to be extended – and that includes cotton!
"The support [Lilith] was able to get from international figures at the conference she attended in Bonn last month is a great win for the campaign."
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2. Deaf ear on GE feared
By BECK ELEVEN
The Press, 06 June 2008
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4573876a11.html
Campaigners lobbying against genetically-engineered (GE) crops [in New Zealand] fear formal protests to a government agency will fall on deaf ears.
The Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) announced yesterday that it would hear submissions in Christchurch in August or September on Crop and Food Research's application for field trials of GE vegetables to flowering.
Previous field trials have been halted before the crop seeds.
Soil and Health Association spokesman Steffan Browning said there was a feeling among anti-GE campaigners that the trials would be approved irrespective of the number and strength of submissions against them.
"Why put people through the angst and hassle (of making a submission)?" he said. "They're better off going in and pulling the crops out."
Crop and Food says the research will build on the success of an existing programme involving herbicide-tolerant onions which has been under way near Lincoln for four years. If Erma approves the trial, Crop and Food will plant GE onions, spring onions, garlic and leeks over 2.5 hectares for 10 years.
The research programme will allow a small number of onion plants in the field to flower and set seed within special cages made of a double layer of insect-proof mesh.
Erma general manager of new organisms Libby Harrison said the organisation received 123 submissions compared to almost 1933 for a previous GE onion field trial application in 2003.
Biotechnologist and former Crop and Food scientist Elvira Dommisse said the number of submissions was not an accurate measure of public sentiment against GE foods.
"The application was poorly publicised and I'm critical of the Erma process," she said. "There has been no proof of runaway success with these kinds of trials anywhere else in the world and the Government just wants to keep all their options open.
"They don't seem to realise that they can't have both clean, green New Zealand and genetically modified food".
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3. Outrage over GE crop call
TVNZ, June 8 2008
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1836521
The man responsible for monitoring New Zealand's biosecurity has prompted outrage by advocating the use of genetically modified crops.
The deputy director general for MAF Biosecurity told a conference in London this week that unless new crop varieties are introduced we are not going to be able to feed a growing world population.
Barry O'Neil says GM foods have been around for a while with no adverse effects.
His comments have angered anti-GE campaigners who say the speech was shameful and any push to spread GM crops would be a disaster in the making.
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4. NZ Farmers Warned Against GE Feed
GE-Free NZ, 8 June 2008
New Zealand farmers are being warned against heeding comments by Barry O'Neil – deputy director general of MAF Biosecurity New Zealand- supporting the use of GE animal feed.
Mr O'Neil, speaking on a trip to Europe, claimed food shortages will force consumers to accept GE crops.
But he ignored studies showing crops like GM soy yield 10% less than conventional crops because of "yield drag", as well as evidence of harm to animals and people from GM crops.
"It is vital that New Zealand farmers stay alert to the rejection of GE crops – including for animal feed – by consumers at home and in our overseas markets," says Jon Carapiet from GE free NZ (in food and environment).
"There are good commercial and ethical reasons why advertisements for Tegel and Inghams include a declaration that they do not use GM feed. Similarly an advertisement for Steinlager Pure highlights the fact that New Zealanders have embraced GM- free production to be as much part of our cultural values and identity as Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Everest, our nuclear-free policy, and giving women the right to vote."
Experts from the UN who have investigated the global food crisis only recently confirmed that GM crops are not a solution to the problem.
Indeed, GM crops that survive weedkillers and absorp the chemicals into food, require more oil-derived inputs, encourage monocultures, and are subject to patent-controls including the creation of so-called "Terminator" seeds, represent a serious threat to sustainable agriculture.
It is shameful that a senior MAF offficial should be so misleading with his comments. His analysis ignores the fact that New Zealand can only hope to continue to benefit from our clean, green, natural image by maintaining the highest integrity of the food system and excluding GM crops.
Farmers must be aware that even so-called "approved" GM feed that has prompted protests when imported to New Zealand, has not been independenty safety-tested. Under New Zealand law liability for any harm may ultimately fall to the farmers or food manufacturers who use their products. The Australian Insurance Council has warned food manufacturers that use of GM ingredients could see them face 'asbestos-style' lawsuits in decades ahead.
Of equal concern is that imported GM feed carries the risk of containing illegal and experimental GM variants never intended to enter the food supply. Countries like the US which are growing GM crops are seeing repeated breakdowns in segregation and regulation.
" The push to spread GM crops is a disaster in the making, and New Zealand farmers should have no part in it," says Mr Carapiet.
"New Zealand's future rests in an ethical biotechnology strategy that uses understanding of genetics, such as through gene-marker assisted breeding – to inform research but not to release GM organisms."
ENDS
Jon Carapiet 0210507681
References
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2008/06/05/110720/gm-crops-needed-to-feed-worlds-livestock.html