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  • From: "Kevin Ancell" <kancell AT goodearthgardens.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: New Zealand organic-farming nation by 2020 ??
  • Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 08:57:14 -0600




Corn flap could shuck New Zealand leader
Michael Field
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published 7/12/2002


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AUCKLAND, New Zealand - With general elections 15 days away, the
lackluster campaign exploded this week with claims in a new book that New
Zealand experienced an accidental release of genetically engineered (GE)
sweet corn and that the government of Prime Minister Helen Clark covered it
up.
Genetics has been the major issue with Mrs. Clark's Labor government,
which has said it would allow a moratorium on GE crops to lapse next year.
The Green Party says that if that happens, it will bring the government
down.
"Seeds of Distrust: The story of a GE cover-up" by Nicky Hager contends
that in November 2000, GE-contaminated crops were released into New Zealand
and have been allowed to grow and be processed for consumption.
Mrs. Clark - who has been married for more than 20 years to Dr. Peter
Davis, a professor of public health, but uses her maiden name - responded
angrily to Mr. Hager's assertion.
"It is an outrage, these conspiracy theories," the prime minister said,
adding that she was frustrated that GE was debated emotionally rather than
factually. "There are none so deaf as those who don't want to hear it, of
course."
Environment Minister Marian Hobbs was adamant, insisting that she was
not aware of any seeds from the shipment having been planted.
"There is no proof that there are [GE] contaminated plants planted -
OK? There is no proof. If there were proof that there were, they would have
been [pulled] out."
Wednesday's food alarm was the second blow to Mrs. Clark in recent
days.
Last Friday, police said there was a prima facie case for bringing
criminal charges against Mrs. Clark for signing a painting she did not
create, but because it was for charity, they would not press charges. They
revealed that Mrs. Clark's staff had destroyed the evidence, and that she
had not been completely cooperative with the police.
Mrs. Clark threatened the media with defamation suits if they
disseminated comments about it made by opposition leader Bill English of the
National Party.
Mr. Hager, a leftist researcher, rose to prominence with a previous
book outlining the extent of the Echelon spy network involving the United
States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand - a quasi-alliance dating
to World War II. It led to a European Parliament inquiry.
His publisher, Craig Potton, is a Green Party candidate, but Greens
leader Jeannette Fitzsimons said she knew nothing of the book until
Wednesday and was "shell-shocked."
The Green Party, which Labor still needs for support in Parliament, has
said it will pull down the minority Labor government unless a moratorium on
the commercial release of GM organisms is extended.
[The alliance of the two parties seemed under strain yesterday as the
New Zealand Herald headlined: "Clark in fury at GM ambush."]
Simmering tensions between Labor and the Greens erupted into open
warfare yesterday over claims that the government covered up an accidental
release of genetically modified (GM) sweet corn.
After scraping into Parliament with the minimum 5 percent support in
the polls three years ago, the Greens now register 11 percent and they hope
their stand against genetic engineering is gaining ground among voters.
They want New Zealand - a major exporter of food and agricultural
products to Australia, Japan and the United States - to declare itself a
GE-free food market and become an organic-farming nation by 2020.
Farmers appear split on whether the government's moratorium on the
release of GM organisms should be extended.
The Sustainability Council points to a Lincoln University survey in
2000 showing that 49 percent of 656 farmers believed New Zealand should seek
GE-free status, while 39 percent disagreed.
The council, mostly exporters, argues that widespread release would
damage New Zealand's international trade with the European Union, which is
unwilling to buy GM produce.
But Federated Farmers President Alistair Polson said the group surveyed
its members last year and almost all of the nearly 1,000 responses had
supported the Royal Commission's "proceed with caution" recommendation.
With studies, reports and surveys coming up with different and
conflicting conclusions, the voters likely will be guided by emotion rather
than fact, compelled by such visions as the two-headed salmon that resulted
from botched GE research here.
This week, New Zealand-born Hollywood actor Sam Neill joined the
cacophony of confusion surrounding the possible benefits or risks of GM to a
country that sells itself to the world as a clean, green, natural
wonderland.
"I would urge the present government and the incoming government to
seriously reconsider this lifting of the moratorium, and to give the people
of New Zealand time to consider and to debate this most critical of issues,"
said Mr. Neill.
"I'm yet to be convinced by this technology. My feeling is that this is
the most serious issue that we face in New Zealand today," he said.
"We simply don't know enough about the long-term effects of GE on our
environment, on our health and, indeed, on our own genetics."
"It seems the only safe precaution we can take at this time is to
extend the moratorium at least five years," said the star of the "Jurassic
Park" film series, about rampaging dinosaurs revived from ancient DNA.
The country's most active pro-GM lobby group, Life Sciences Network,
quickly counterattacked. The group, which includes scientists and
celebrities, restated its support for the Royal Commission's "proceed with
caution" recommendation on the genetically modified products.
Mr. English, leader of the main opposition National Party, said Mrs.
Clark should explain why her government had tried to "cover up its
incompetence, instead of explaining to the public what happened .
"It looks like a pattern of behavior first she makes the wrong
decision, and then sets out to cover it up. This one is one the public do
regard as significant."
Mr. Hager said the government was told in November 2000 that a 5.6-ton
consignment of sweet-corn seeds from the U.S. company Novartis Seeds (now
Syngenta) had been found to be contaminated with GE corn seeds.
But by the time Mrs. Clark was told, thousands of GE plants were
already growing, Mr. Hager said.




  • New Zealand organic-farming nation by 2020 ??, Kevin Ancell, 07/12/2002

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