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Govt looks at sterile seed technology
Mar 23, 2006
TVNZ
The Sustainability Council says Cabinet papers released under the Official Information Act show the government is seeking the option to authorise field trials for what is known as terminator technology.
A decision on whether to proceed with the development of the technology - also known as genetic use restriction technologies or GURTs - will come from talks being held at the Convention on Biodiversity in Brazil.
GURTs genetically modifies plants to make them incapable of reproduction.
The convention recommends that in view of the lack of information about potential impacts of the technology GURTs should not be approved for field-testing and commercial use.
The Sustainability Council says poor nations would suffer if countries made their own decisions about whether to trial genetically modified plants that produce sterile seeds.
The council's executive director, Simon Terry, says the government's approach isn't a prudent one and it is not a good idea to have nations set the standards independently.
In addition Rural Women New Zealand says GURTs could threaten the livelihood of millions of farmers who depend on saving seed from previous years' crops and can't afford to buy new seed each year.
Environment Minister David Benson-Pope says there is no international agreement to ban the use of GURTs. He says the government see both positive and negative aspects to the technology, so would look at it on a case-by-case basis.
However, he says he doubts such a technology would ever be applied for or approved in this country. Benson-Pope says the government does not support the use of genetic technology that would disadvantage developing countries.
The Green Party environment spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says the government's attitude is irresponsible. Tanczos says it is all very well for New Zealand to say it has very strict regulations but the seed companies are going to go to the countries with the least restrictive regulations and the least capacity to evaluate the technology.
He says the problem with these seeds is that once they have been grown anywhere, they are a risk everywhere.
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