A council of well-known New Zealanders yesterday [Wednesday] demanded a five-year extension to the ban on the release of genetically modified organisms, in protest at the Labour government’s intentions to lift the current GM moratorium in October 2003.
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Led by South Canterbury farmer and former Federated Farmers president Sir Peter Elworthy, the Sustainability Council boasts a high-profile membership including actor Sam Neill, former squash player Dame Susan Devoy, Auckland University biochemistry professor Dr Garth Cooper and food writer Annabelle Langbein.
The council insisted that while being “pro-science”, it does not believe that the Environmental Risk Management Authority could be relied upon to protect NZ farmers from GM contamination. Langbein insisted that the group embraced new technologies: “I believe there is real potential for GM in medical and other lab-based commercial applications, but the matter of GM released into our environment is a completely different thing.”
Neill admitted to being “GE-sceptic” in a videotaped statement: “It seems to me as potentially a more serious issue than even the nuclear-free debate we had 20 years ago.”
Dame Devoy added: “I think this is an enormous risk, something that we cannot reverse – it’s going to affect future generations.”
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By GlobalDataPro-GE campaigners and scientists slammed the move and demanded the disclosure of whoever is funding the group. Prime Minister Helen Clark, National leader Bill English, ACT and the Greens have all called for the council to reveal the source of its funds.
Francis Wevers, spokesman for the Life Sciences Network, meanwhile told the Evening Post that the council was “dead in the water”, and Network chairman Dr William Rolleston told the Timaru Herald that NZ would become a “banana republic” if it ignored biotechnology.
