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| GE Free
New Zealand in Food & Environment, 20th October
2004
Lesson of Corngate is
to Make Leaf-disc Tests Compulsory.
Beyond the smoke
and mirrors characterising the Parliamentary Select Committee report
into Corngate there is one clear lesson to be learned: that legislation
should make it compulsory to screen plants intended for seed-production.
Things have moved on from the debate over whether there was unofficial
approval of contamination with the development of new protocols
to effectively weed out GM contamination each season. "We now
have an identified system that will support seed-purity rather than
force growers to fall into a spiral of increasing contamination,"
says Jon Carapiet from GE Free NZ in food and environment. "That
system must be made mandatory."
L ast month the Sustainability Council of New Zealand released details
of the development by Pacific Seeds of a protocol for weeding out
GM-contamination in plants intended for seed production. The process
requires leaf-disc tests on parent-plants grown in greenhouses,
allowing any GM-contaminated plants to be discarded.
The protocol will help prevent conventional GE-free food crops becoming
increasingly contaminated by pharmaceutical-crops and other GE variants
that threaten the integrity of the food supply.
To protect local and export markets the protocol should become mandatory
in New Zealand and be required of trading partners supplying seeds
for use here. Whilst the Corngate report may consider a number of
improvements to regulation aimed at protecting the environment,
public health, consumer choice and our economy, the leaf-disc pre-test
is a vital element to renew
seed-purity each season.
Some seed-companies are also committed to using increased sample-size
for testing at-risk crops to improve confidence in genetic tests.
Other necessary changes include more rigorous auditing, and stricter
labelling of GE-derived products. The government should take action
now. The issue of liability is also key. Companies that refuse to
use the improved protocols are guilty of negligence and should be
prosecuted.
MAF should also be required to align their administrative practices
with the government's commitment to zero-contamination. Better systems
for monitoring seed-distribution, instigation of clean-ups and for
compensation are also needed to protect innocent parties from the
failure of others "Of course the system isn't 100% perfect
and errors occur. But that's why it is vital to support the principles
of zero-tolerance. It is the only responsible gold-standard benchmark
that serves New Zealand's national
interest," says Mr Carapiet.
ENDS
Jon Carapiet: 021 050 7681
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