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| GE Free
New Zealand in Food & Environment, 16th April
2005
NZ Urged to Follow US and Fine Biotech Firm
The New Zealand Government
should follow the US government's lead and fine biotech firm Syngenta
for illegally shipping unapproved GE corn for almost 4 years, including
exports to New Zealand.
Despite international ramifications in the EU and Asian countries
where the serious breakdown of regulation has caused alarm Food
Authorities in Australia and New Zealand have so far been dismissive
of the issue.
But the fact that the US authorities have fined Syngenta is a clear
signal that our government should also impose penalties to motivate
compliance.
If our authorities sweep the matter under the carpet as they are
attempting to do, there is nothing to motivate industry to comply
with the rules and the system will be exposed to further serious
breaches.
"We have a situation where no action has been taken in New
Zealand or Australia to identify where this corn has gone, recall
it where found, or to independently test it for food safety,"
says Jon Carapiet from GE Free NZ in food and environment.
After Syngenta revealed it had sold Bt 10 GE corn by mistake for
some four years, other countries have been working to track where
it has gone and test what the health effects may be.
Despite official claims of "likely safety" because Bt
10 is "similar to Bt 11", the unapproved corn is understood
to include an antibiotic-resistant marker gene that raises medical
concerns about its use in food.
The failure by authorities in New Zealand to take this breakdown
seriously casts a shadow over their commitment to the integrity
of the regulatory system for GE foods. It is vital there are financial
penalties imposed on companies that breach the rules and that authorities
stop relying on the US government's deeply flawed procedures as
they are doing in the case of Bt10.
Ends
Contact Jon Carapiet 021 0507681
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