6 June 2010

GE Plants And Animals Do Not Belong In Clean Green 100% Pure NZ.

With a continued effort towards genetically engineering New Zealand pasture plants and developing herds of genetically engineered (GE) animals, AgResearch appears to miss the meaning of clean green 100% Pure, according to the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand.

“AgResearch in developing GE ryegrass and GE clover as a means of altering farming’s greenhouse gas emissions, misses the point that the aware consumers who value clean and green and are concerned at greenhouse emissions, are also aghast at genetic engineering,” said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.

“The Prime Minister and his ministers also tout clean and green 100% Pure because they understand its value in commercial terms, however there is a disconnect with the reality, that real sustainability does not include GE.”

“AgResearch and government cannot have it both ways.”

“Whose anti-clean green, anti-100% Pure policy is AgResearch following? The vested interests of PGG-Wrightson Seeds, multi-national GE drug entrepreneurs, AgResearch GE science careers, or is it the government’s hidden intention to follow a GE future for New Zealand’s pasture and products?”

“GE rye, clover and animals cannot co-exist with a clean green New Zealand.”

AgResearch on TV3 news last night discussed development of a clover that when eaten and digested will produce less methane than current varieties. Using intragenics, the clover is to be bred from genetically engineered clover, and AgResearch is hoping that along with its GE ryegrass development, using ryegrass genes, that somehow the technology will be acceptable, because it is not the unusual combinations such as toad genes into potatoes or Arctic cod into strawberries.

Not so says Soil & Health, “Both intragenics and cisgenics are GE and carry the same type of risks as the more exotic sounding GE examples.”

“And for every theoretical GE advance, there is a clean and sustainable organic alternative that stands to serve New Zealand’s best value export markets in a way that AgResearch’s  gimmicks cannot.”

“Conventional breeding and use of more diverse pastures, farm forestry, and reduced intensification can all lead to better value and preferred consumer products, better animal welfare benefits and better sustainable outcomes than AgResearch’s drive for unnatural and narrow focused production,” said Mr Browning.

“Clean green organic dairy farming cuts nitrate leaching into waterways by 58% and soils have 43% more earthworms. 28% more carbon is stored in organically farmed soils, so why not support organics growth into the growing US$50 billion international organics market.”

 Soil & Health – Organic NZ will be present at the National Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek this week at stall PE20, and is determined that GE be removed from New Zealand’s agricultural scene.

“A vision for best value New Zealand products and tourism doesn’t include commodity agriculture polluted by genetic engineering.”

“The gloves must come off against the Crown Research Institutes (CRI) continued GE attack on the New Zealand environment, both by AgResearch with its bizarre and cruel GE animal experiments, its intended GE polluting of pastures, and also Scion with its GE trees. Plant & Food Research also needs to make up its mind, if it intends to continue considering GE field trials and divert its energy’s from extensive GE laboratory experiments into technologies for best practice organics and genuine clean green 100%  Pure sustainable production.”
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