NZ Government, Public Interest Group Spar Over GM Moratorium

WELLINGTON, New Zealand--The newly launched Sustainability Council in New Zealand has publicly requested the government reconsider lifting a ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The ban is due to lift in October 2003, and the council is asking for a five-year extension.

The Sustainability Council is presently comprised of former Federated Farmers national president Sir Peter Elworthy, squash champion Dame Susan Devoy, biochemist Garth Cooper, food writer Annabel Langbein and actor Sam Neill. Neill--best known in the United States as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park--was born in Ireland to New Zealand parents and retains New Zealand citizenship.

New Zealand Parliament elections will be held on July 27, and the Sustainability Council is aiming their protests at incoming government officials, whomever they may be. The council wants genetically modified organisms restricted to the laboratory and controlled field trials for at least five more years.

"I would urge the present government and the incoming government to seriously reconsider this lifting of the moratorium, and to give the people of New Zealand time to consider and to debate this most critical of issues," Neill told The New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz). "It seems the only safe precaution we can take at this time is to extend the moratorium at least five years."

The current government is resistant to extending the ban. Marian Hobbs, the environment minister, said the demand to extend the current moratorium does not recognize present safeguards or acknowledge the government's caution. "The expiry of the moratorium in October 2003 will not open the floodgates to commercial production of GE [genetically engineered] crops," Hobbs said. "It will simply allow applications for the release of genetically modified material to be considered case by case by the Environmental Risk Management Authority."

The Sustainability Party has also had its credentials criticized by the government, pointing out that Neill is an actor, not a scientist, and that Elworthy is not currently working with New Zealand farmers and cannot accurately speak on their behalf.