Photo: SJB
New Zealand follows Australia down the dark path.
NEW GM LAWS
Genetic modification is back on the political agenda in New Zealand.
Last year, the National-led coalition government signalled its intent to reform genetic modification laws in hopes of providing more “enabling” and “modern” regulation, and now, a subsequent gene technology bill is currently before the select committee.
The bill comes on the back of growing calls for New Zealand’s regulatory frameworks to become ‘less restrictive’, and would end a 30-year ban across the country.
The proposed legislation would remove a whole subclass of gene-edited plants, animals, and microbes from the scope of the GMO regulations.
What does that mean? Well, they would be exempted from pre-market risk assessment for health and the environment, traceability requirements and GMO labelling.
Currently, New Zealand’s regulations – among the most stringent in the world – mean that GMOs cannot be released out of containment without going through a rigorous process.
The landmark bill was pitched by the government as a ‘vehicle for economic growth’.
In his State of the Nation speech, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said “…enabling gene technology is about backing farmers. It is about embracing growth. It is about saying yes, instead of no.”
However, in a new expert report, independent scientists have strongly criticised the New Zealand government’s proposal to radically weaken its GMO regulations.
“The scientific case is not made for the proposed reforms to gene technology law. The risk tiering framework is not risk proportionate. It would lower the regulatory burden but substantially increase risks to human health and the environment”, reads the submission.
The scientists are based at the Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and the lead author is Professor Jack Heinemann.
Despite the concerns, the issue may not be as hotly contentious as it once was.
New Zealanders have been saying ‘no’ to GMOs for decades, but this new bill has not been met with the overt social outrage seen in the early 2000s.
At the time, tens of thousands marched down Queen Street, pink bras were flashed in Parliament, and ‘Corngate‘ captivated the nation.
Today, things are very different, with most of society lulled into accepting the changes.
Luxon, in his push for reform, says he wants to see New Zealanders embracing GMOs and scientists “…working on high-yield crop variants, and solutions to agricultural emissions that don’t drive farmers off their land”.
Public submissions for the Gene Technology Bill closed this week.
Now, our Kiwi brothers and sisters sit back and wait to see if common sense will prevail.
Unfortunately, if they are following the lead of Australia and the rest of the world, then we can anticipate a new ‘revolution’ in GM foods and crops coming out of New Zealand.
As well as the consequences that may follow making such a radical decision.
THE GM TAKEOVER
The normalisation of GM techniques has been calculated and cunning, becoming much like Digital ID: An issue that tens of thousands would have taken to the streets to protest just a few decades ago, but now, the same people wouldn’t lift a finger to save their lives.
New Zealand was one of the last strongholds left after Australia buckled a few years ago.
The Australian government deregulated CRISPR gene-editing methods for numerous products at the end of 2019, in a move experts said threatened organic production.
Not long after, states would follow, like the South Australian government lifting their long-standing ban on genetically modified crops beginning in 2020.
In 2021, New South Wales lifted their 18-year moratorium on genetically modified crops across the region, in a move welcomed by the state’s peak farming body.
Today, there is basically nowhere left that isn’t a testing ground for Frankenstein foods, with approximately 80 different types of GM crops grown worldwide. Most of these included as modified canola, soybean, maize and cotton.
Other GM commercially released crops include papaya, potato, squash and tomato.
All approved GM crops in Australia are listed in the GMO Record.
Australia is not the only country to go down this route, either. At present, the biotech industry is waging an ongoing battle to get its newly-advanced methods of genetic modification excluded from European GMO regulations.
The Italian government recently approved a bill banning the use of laboratory-produced food and animal feed as it aims to safeguard the country’s agricultural heritage.
Their fight is for good cause and reason. The GM lobby is threatening to completely transform the very fundamentals of nature itself, including with the introduction of edited soil microbes, ‘smart seeds’, ‘smart plants’, lab-grown food, and more.
They are also editing animals, such as fruit flies and mosquitoes, showing that the GM push goes well beyond simply food and crops. Deregulation also allows for more of this as well.
Could it be a ‘coincidence’ that the Australian grains industry has released a new biosecurity framework with the aim of “protecting growers from emerging plant pests and diseases”?
Why, all of a sudden, has such a risk arisen following the deregulation of GM crops? Wasn’t this kind of technology supposed to be safer?
I have personally been fighting against GM foods for over a decade here in Australia, so it is a shame to see New Zealand likely follow us down this same path.
I would suspect, in just a few years’ time, NZ may also be calling for a new biosecurity plan to try and protect the chaos that has been unleased on native food chains.
But will the damage have already been done by that point?
We will have to wait to find out for ourselves.
KEEP UP-TO-DATE
For more TOTT News:
Facebook — Facebook.com/TOTTNews
YouTube — YouTube.com/TOTTNews
Instagram — Instagram.com/TOTTNews
Twitter — Twitter.com/EthanTOTT
Bitchute — Bitchute.com/TOTTNews
Gab — Gab.com/TOTTNews
Once the genie is out of the bottle good luck getting it back in. This is madness in an already insane world. This is all for money, power and control. We do not need man-made frankenstein foods, plants, microbes or animals. Nature has been self breeding resilience and drought tolerance for thousands if not millions of years. We do not need man’s added insanity mixed in. We already have thousands of varieties of plants that do well in difficult climatic situations. We have plenty of food to go around. Disappointed in the Australian and New Zealand government, although not surprised.