The proposed Bill:
- shifts from a near complete ban on GMO release in this country, to a licensing regime.
- Puts Aotearoa New Zealand’s nascent $700 million a year organic agriculture sector in jeopardy, along with associated benefits to that whole sector as a ‘non-GMO’ producer and the premium created by the perception of this as a “clean, green” economy.
- raises serious issues of:
- sovereignty
- consumer choice
- human health
- economic resilience
- environmental sustainability and ecological integrity
that are not properly addressed.
- takes no account of the urgent need to transition to a low impact regenerative economy and may well work against it.
- assumes that there is such a thing as “safe use of gene technology”.
Supporters of the Bill have, in the media and elsewhere, also relied on arguments around climate change mitigation, world hunger and efficiency. These don’t stand up to close scrutiny. This is largely due to the commercial nature of these developments and the current degree of corporate concentration in the world’s industrial food systems.
In the face of the novel, exponential, irreversible and system-changing risks outlined, we recommend a more precautionary approach. This, essentially, means maintaining a system in which GMOs remain in secure facilities.