Green Party Press Release 5 September 2012
www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/ge-not-our-best-interest
The United States State Department and American multinational companies have
been pushing for the release of genetically engineered food into the New
Zealand environment at a biotechnology conference being held in Rotorua this
week, the Green Party said today.
The ABIC 2012 conference being held in Rotorua is dubbed the 'World Cup' of
biotechnology and has seen a huge push from vested interests for GE release
into the environment despite public opposition to such a move.
"The primary benefactors of Genetic Engineering (GE) are US corporate
interests not New Zealand farmers," Green Party primary production
spokesperson Steffan Browning said.
"The GE focused ABIC 2012 conference in Rotorua this week, is clearly part of
a strong push towards GE farming in Aotearoa New Zealand by large
multinational companies and Washington.
"The US State Department presence at the Rotorua conference shows that pushing
GE is part of US foreign policy as much as it is in the interests of big
corporates like DuPont and Monsanto.
"Consumers around the world don't want a bar of GE and if New Zealand wants to
continue reaping the benefits of exporting high value-added produce, we need
to steer clear.
"GE will not enable more exports - it risks locking our produce out of markets
and tarnishing our clean green brand. GE is not smart, green economics.
"We can add more value to our agricultural exports by leveraging our clean,
safe, 100% Pure brand.
"Instead of putting our whole agriculture sector at risk we need to be
investing in clean green technology to create jobs.
"Far more jobs could be created by developing our own high value-added foods
than can be made selling the products of Monsanto," Mr Browning said.