Farmers have asked B+LNZ for more information on the complex topic of gene technology.
Background
Immediately before Christmas last year, Parliament’s Health Committee called for submissions on the Gene Technology Bill 2024, giving the public eight weeks (including the summer holidays) to make a submission on this important issue.
B+LNZ was frustrated by this timing and, with other sector groups, pushed the Government to provide more time so we could properly consult with our farmers. This request was refused. You can read more about the submission we provided despite these challenges in our recent e-diary story here.
In the meantime, B+LNZ has been asked by farmers for more information on gene technology – what it is, what the potential risks exist are and where the opportunities lie. This is understandable, as it is a complex and divisive topic.
If the Government had allowed more time to consider the proposed legislation, B+LNZ’s preference would then have been for the primary sector to collaborate on setting out the risks and opportunities of gene technology for our sector and get input from producers to ensure a holistic and informed view of the legislation.
In the absence of this, we provide some further reading for farmers.
Further reading
This is not a comprehensive list but should help outline some of the important aspects of the gene technology debate.
- For a useful overview of what gene technology involves, see the resources on the Royal Society Te Apārangi website – includes a paper on paper on gene editing for the primary industries which sets out potential uses along with risks and benefits. There is also a paper on gene editing for pest control.
- There are a range of publications that discuss the potential risks of gene technology in plant breeding, which is where gene technologies are likely to affect pastoral farming. As a fairly readable example, see this article from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. While we haven’t had time to canvas farmer views in more depth, the Concerned Farmers NZ website has a summary of some of the farmer concerns.
- One of the big concerns is around containing and tracing genetically modified crops and grasses, including concerns from those who don’t want to use GE and still want to market their products as GE-free. Managing GE grasses in New Zealand’s pastoral farming system is a particular area of concern and there is no clarity yet on how this would be dealt with in the current legislation. For information about how other countries have managed this, some of the challenges and how it could potentially be managed in a New Zealand context, AgResearch scientist John Caradus has just published this paper: Is co-existence and/or containment of genetically modified plants possible, and is it important?
- For data on the uptake of GM around the world see the ISAAA Inc website.
- Examples of industry-led coexistence frameworks for crops (but importantly not grasses) in other countries include:
- Australia’s Market Choices Framework
- USA Excellence Through Stewardship
Our work
B+LNZ’s Select Committee submission identified a range of risks that need to be managed in relation to gene technology but that are not clearly addressed in the Bill – particularly market access, traceability, coexistence and risk management.
We are writing again to the Health Select Committee asking for the Government to slow down this process so we can properly consider and address the wide range of farmer views and ensure we get this important legislation right.