A senior official has confirmed that hundreds of genetically engineered maize plants were unwittingly grown on New Zealand’s North Island early this year.
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The deputy director general of agriculture, Larry Fergusson, admitted that tests have shown that around 800 GE maize plants were grown from seed that had been contaminated with GE seed from the US.
GE crops have been banned in New Zealand for two years while a system is worked out to control GE usage. The ban is due to expire in October 2003.
Fergusson speculated that seed companies might have missed the GE seed in tests because there was a relatively small amount of the contaminated seed present.
He also said that crops in nearby fields were unlikely to have been contaminated through pollination.
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By GlobalDataSeed from the contaminated crops was destroyed in August. The fields where they grew will be monitored and any new plants that grow there will be destroyed, reported Dow Jones International.
