Former Crop & Food Scientist says GE Brassica field test approval lacked scrutiny

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A former Crop & Food GE scientist, Dr Elvira Dommisse, said today that proper scrutiny by ERMA of evidence would have prioritised the need for food studies over fund-wasting field trials.

The Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) has once again approved an application to field test genetically engineered (GE) crops, namely GE brassicas – cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and forage kale for stock feed.

This decision, which gives Crop & Food Research in Lincoln the go ahead, has angered groups with scientific and environmental safety concerns, who note the lack of scrutiny ERMA has shown in its decision.

At the public hearing in April this year, a number of scientific submitters with referenced evidence, stressed that it was important to first carry out rat feeding experiments with these GE crops to establish that they were safe to eat, according to Dr Elvira Dommisse of Soil & Health.

“One thing that needs to come through very clearly is the huge waste of public money if, at the end of ten years, rat feeding trials take place and the crops are found to be toxic or allergenic.”

“This is quite possible, given the past record of other GE crops. We only have to look to Australia, where GE peas modified with a harmless bean protein produced immunological problems in mice. The GE brassicas to be field tested at Lincoln are modified with a highly altered bacterial protein, which produces a pesticidal toxin. This is all the more reason to believe that such crops will be toxic or allergenic to mice or rats and ultimately humans and other animals.”

Yet when asked about rat feeding experiments on National Radio Dr Mary Christey, the leader of the GE brassica project said, “we do not think that food safety experiments are necessary.” [Our Changing World, Thurs 3,10 May, 2007]

“Apparently in support and bypassing solid food safety evidence ERMA have said, “She’ll be right Crop & Food, have your play at taxpayers expense, and we’ll worry about the real point of all this later,” said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.

“Food safety scares in other parts of the world have increased the international demand for organically grown produce, which has much stricter criteria about what crop protection measures can be taken to deal with plant pests and pathogens.”

“Organic certifiers BioGro and Organic FarmNZ are receiving increased applications for organic certification with BioGro receiving a record number last week. This is indicative of the huge worldwide growth in consumer demand for safe, natural and nutritious produce. GE crops are excluded from that demand for good reason. It is time for ERMA and government to listen.”

Food tests before field tests

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Soil & Health is calling for more integration of environmental and food safety analysis on GE and pesticide applications, following last weeks Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) Bt Brassica hearing.

ERMA denies food safety responsibility, as Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) develops food standards covering the content and labelling of food, and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) administers the legislation covering food for sale.

“Soil & Health and others, through submissions and questions of clarification at last week’s hearing, pointed out the nonsense of ERMA considering field trials of GE food crops ahead of food safety tests of those same intended crops”, said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning, “The agencies and legislation need a shot of commonsense”.

“It is ludicrous to be field testing a vegetable that carries pesticide in every cell, without testing its safety as a food thoroughly first, particularly when there is vast opposition to GE in food and the environment in the first place. A 10 year field study of GE peas in Australia, had to be discontinued when it was found that they were harmful as food. Valuable New Zealand research money would be better spent on safe high value organic production”.

“Significant evidence of human and animal health suffering from plants genetically engineered in a similar way to those being experimented with at Crop & Food, was presented at the ERMA hearing”.

“Crop & Food, the applicant for the GE Brassica field trial, intends to test outdoors a range of cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and forage kale, all modified with synthetic genes modified from the Bascillus thuriengensis bacteria (Bt), yet in India, workers are sick from handling GE Bt cotton, and livestock are dying from eating it, and rats in only 3 months of feeding studies of Monsanto’s Mon 363 maize, also modified with a Bt toxin, have shown signs of liver and kidney toxicity, as well as differences in weight gain between the sexes”.

“Long term feeding trials on Crop & Food’s GE Brassicas should happen ahead of any outdoor tests, saving the tax payer the expense of the CRI’s unwanted field tests”, said Mr Browning, “such tests and experiments do not belong as part of clean green New Zealand”.

Soil & Health has a target of an Organic 2020, which would not allow any GE crops or animals in the New Zealand environment.

Withdraw GE and apologise FSANZ (Food Safety Australia New Zealand)

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Soil & Health wants a ban on seed imports of alfalfa, soy, corn & maize, as well as GE foodstuffs, from the USA and other GE producing countries, following shonky environmental and food safety appraisals by overseas agencies coming to light.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Monsanto have both been found wanting in the last month, with implications for New Zealand’s environment and food supply, according to Soil & Health.

“Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA), MAF, and the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) have all accepted pseudo science or untested recommendations from Monsanto, Syngenta, USDA, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and others, rather than the concerns of cautious New Zealanders”, said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.

“Now with US courts and independent scientific peer reviews showing up flaws, including environmental and human health risks, in previously accepted data and institutions, it is time to smarten up clean green New Zealand’s controls.”

A number of genetically engineered foods have been allowed into our food supply without adequate testing, and the risk of environmental contamination from GE contaminated seed or microbes remains high, according to Soil & Health.

Following the release of previously blocked Monsanto data on rat feeding studies of MON 863 corn, approved by FSANZ in 2003 for use in food and feed in New Zealand, it was found that the rats fed with the GM corn showed signs of toxicity in the liver and kidneys compared with those fed non-GM corn. Possible hormone alteration was also shown.

“FSANZ and NZFSA are too quick to accept GE company pseudo science and have consistently ignored the concerns of those providing precautionary advice,” said Mr Browning.

“A FSANZ staff member has said that no independent feeding tests or independent assessments of company data are necessary and confidential company data are fine for safety assessments.”

“The new information shows that the FSANZ approach does not treat risk seriously enough, and MON 863 corn should be immediately withdrawn, with an apology to New Zealand consumers.”

Ministerial Review

“The ministerial review, recently requested by Food Safety Minister Annette King, of FSANZ’s draft decision to approve another Monsanto GE Corn (High-Lysine LY038), is a necessary change to the FSANZ once over lightly and she’ll be right mate approach to novel foods that have obvious health risks. The Minister now needs to review all GE foods with a view to the corrupt processes and risks to the health of New Zealanders,” said Mr Browning.

“NZFSA’s appalling acceptance of untested LL601 rice shows another agency’s predisposition for not rocking commercial interests, although consumer surveys consistently show that New Zealanders do not want GM food.”

Disturbing research that has been ignored to date by food safety authorities includes foods well established in New Zealand: GE soy and canola. Ten-year feeding studies on GE peas showed significant health risks and the peas were destroyed. However, most studies are short term and not independent, but more are finding a dangerous link between chronic illness and GE foods, says Soil & Health.

Syngenta

Giant seed company, Syngenta is also involved with cover-ups, illegal plantings, and contaminated shipments. Syngenta is responsible for the largest case of GE contamination in the world, with at least 185,000 tonnes of Bt-10 GE corn, which although approved only for animal feeds, was mixed with US grain meant for human consumption between 2001 and 2004, and sent around the world.

According to The Lancet, “BT10 contains certain synthetic genes and proteins which are not easily broken down by stomach enzymes. In some cases, such proteins may survive in the gut for ten to twenty times as long as most ‘natural’ proteins, and this may account for the lesions and other physiological abnormalities observed in animal feeding studies involving GM crops.” There are concerns that allergic reactions may follow, and that some abnormalities may lead to cancerous growths.

According to Dr. Brian John of GE Free Cymru, “Syngenta knew about the contamination of Bt11 corn by the illegal Bt10 variety several months before the story was broken by Nature magazine in March 2005. For at least four months Syngenta and the US regulatory authorities, including the USDA and USEPA, connived to keep the contamination incident under wraps, while contaminated grain continued to be distributed on the world market. Dr John maintains Syngenta at first failed to reveal that Bt10 contained antibiotic resistance marker genes, but then had to admit it under pressure from independent scientists.”

Soil & Health says that it is time for Syngenta products to be dropped. Syngenta was the company behind Corngate and withheld information from that inquiry, and all four sweet corn varieties implicated with the 2006 contamination event were Syngenta seeds.

USDA

Last month the USDA was found violating the law and called ‘cavalier’, by a U.S. District Court Judge for failing to adequately assess possible environmental impacts before approving GE Roundup Ready alfalfa developed by Monsanto.

Less than two weeks before, another judge found that there is ‘substantial evidence that the field tests (of GE Roundup Ready Bentgrass) may have had the potential to affect significantly the quality of the human environment’, and that the USDA could not process any further field test permits without conducting a more thorough review.

“New Zealand should ban seed import from companies and administrations with such a shonky record,” said Mr Browning. “GE Free alfalfa has particularly high potential as a high value export crop for New Zealand, according to a successful plaintiff in the USDA alfalfa case. The US alfalfa grower, Mr Phil Geertson, who visited New Zealand recently, told me that the US was contaminated due to Monsanto and the USDA’s incompetence, and New Zealand had huge potential as an exporter of varieties already in the country.”

“These revelations of corrupt corporate and closely connected US agencies, supplying misinformation and poor judgement, must mark a turning point for New Zealand agencies charged with food safety, health and environmental sustainability,” said Mr Browning.

“It is time for New Zealand to turn around from risky and unnecessary GE experimenting, and create a truly sustainable nation with an international point of difference: GE Free, clean and green, and heading to an Organic 2020.”

NZ needs a clean seed industry

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The report by David Oughton from his inquiry into the importation of genetically engineered corn seeds in late 2006, shows institutional corruption and calls into question the ethics of at least some individuals involved in border surveillance according to the Soil & Health Association spokesperson Steffan Browning.

The continued GE incursions also show the need for an urgent expansion of New Zealand’s seed growing industry, a ban on imports of seed from countries and companies that consistently supply contaminated seed.

That a MAF Quarantine Service officer who participated in the earlier decision to remove the requirements for double checks in approving risky seed imports, was also the officer that then ignored positive GE tests and allowed the GE contaminated sweet corn into New Zealand fields, has a very bad smell about it, according to Mr Browning.

The fact that of 90 consignments in 2006, 30 had incomplete computer records shows that staff involved were not taking the issue seriously and maybe some positions need reviewing, as much as systems need improving. This goes right to the top however, said Mr Browning, and the culture of indifference comes from many levels of government that have an arrogant and cavalier attitude to the wishes of New Zealanders and to the risks of Genetic Engineering. New Zealand’s zero tolerance to GE contamination must be defended effectively.

The Oughton report points out a need for improved border control systems focused on the dominant risk seed species; Brassica napus var . oleifera (oil seed rape), Glycine max (soy bean), Zea mays (corn/maize), Medicago sativa (lucerne/alfalfa).

Soil & Health agrees and sees a further method of precaution in a total ban on importation on those species from the US and other countries producing such GE seed.

Some giant seed companies are also consistently the suppliers of contaminated seed and should be penalised for supplying shonky product. Syngenta was the supplier of all the contaminated seed in this recent event, and is the subject of legal proceedings in several countries.

One independent US seed grower with New Zealand interests, has told me that he would prefer to see a New Zealand seed industry developed as GE Free, to allow varieties to be grown on in confidence in New Zealand and be marketed to an eager world, said Mr Browning. The niche market for New Zealand is clean and green and the commercial opportunities are superior to risky seed importation.

Contrary to some seed importers claims, the advantages of new imported varieties do not match the combined benefits of a New Zealand seed industry and clean product for rapidly growing lucrative and discerning markets. Soil & Health promotes Organic 2020 which fits well with the international growth in organics and has no place for GE contamination.

Soil & Health wants staff changes in border control, improved checking systems, a ban on risky imports and strong government encouragement for the New Zealand seed industry.

Dirty Food Technologies

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Time for Government to Pull Up NZ’s Slide into Dirty Food Technologies.

The Soil & Health Association wants 2007 to be the year that New Zealand confirms its Clean Green image and snaps the crown agencies out of the slide into the unsustainable and unwanted activities of GE and animal cloning.

Soil & Health also wants Fonterra, Meat New Zealand and other key commercial agencies and productive sectors to confirm that they will not be part of the slide to food production using cloning or genetic engineering.

Although against international consumer trends, government agency AgResearch has supported the US Food and Drug Administration’s direction of bringing food from cloned animals into the food chain.

Crop & Food another government institution continues to push ahead with genetically engineered food plant trials. Forest Research continues with its GE tree trials. Landcare Research is researching GE biological pest controls.

“With key politicians mooting a new era of sustainability and for ‘sustainability to be central to New Zealand’s unique national identity’, Clean and Green and 100% Pure need to be reinforced as New Zealand images, not attacked by unproven, high risk and unwanted technologies,” said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.

Of particular recent concern was AgResearch’s cloning call, according to Soil & Health. AgResearch is way out of step with consumer preferences, and AgResearch support for the US FDA’s position that includes a no labelling intent for foods derived from cloned animals, is both arrogant and a call for commercial disaster.

GE Free and Clone Free must be standard for New Zealand in the new era of sustainability and huge international market growth for organics.

New Zealand benefits from its clean and green reputation, and foods need to be labelled to ensure consumers both in NZ and overseas can choose GE and clone free.

Consumers won’t want food that has animal welfare implications either, according to Mr Browning, noting that cloning has caused significant suffering in animals already.

Any involvement by Fonterra in cloning is also a step away from a sustainable future for its farmer owners. Real value-added products will have genuine ECO sustainability ticks or organic certification, not risky new food concoctions.

Organic certification, which is the vanguard of consumer guarantees for sustainable production, does not allow either GE or cloning in either production or processing.

Government expressing a target of an Organic 2020 to its funding and research agencies would be far more productive for New Zealand’s reputation, market appeal, and food and environmental safety.

NZ doesn’t need dirty sweet corn

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Following the latest GE seed border incursion, the Soil and Health Association of New Zealand is once again calling for a stop to imports of sweet corn and maize seed, until absolute certainty of nil GE contamination is achieved.

‘Clean green New Zealand farmers deserve better protection by Biosecurity NZ, and those affected by dirty seed need fast assurance of fair compensation, just as the wider community needs assurance that the contaminated seed and young plants will be destroyed,’ said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning,

‘It is increasingly frustrating and disturbing having repeated border incursions of dirty seed. If some in MAF Biosecurity are letting their team and the rest of New Zealand down, and zero tolerance cannot be assured, then MAF must encourage further development of New Zealand’s own clean seed industry’.

‘Self sufficiency in clean seed can protect New Zealand’s clean green reputation as a GE Free producer’.

Prime Minister Helen Clark’s call for New Zealand to be the world’s first truly sustainable nation included the statement: “I want sustainability to be central to New Zealand’s unique national identity….”

‘Our unique national identity includes Nuclear Free and GE Free for most kiwis, and these repeated incursions tarnish that identity’, said Mr Browning.

‘Contrary to Dr William Rolleston of Life Sciences Network, who doesn’t mind a little contamination, the large majority of New Zealanders have consistently indicated they don’t want GE contaminated food or have GE crops grown.’

‘Organic growers and consumers who have sights on an Organic 2020 don’t need Life Sciences contaminated thinking. We want food and crops that our consumers and markets appreciate, not dirty low value commodities’.
Soil & Health is also concerned that possible dilution of contaminated parent lines of seed may be allowing intentional contamination into New Zealand.

Such concerns, according to Mr Browning, further fuel the need to develop New Zealand’s seed industry as part of a Clean Green, GE Free, Nuclear Free national identity.

Organic Farming Offsets Food Miles

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Organic farming offers solutions to the current food miles debate. Not only that, but it leads the way in low energy farming, and will help New Zealand reach its carbon neutral targets, according to the Soil & Health Association.

“Consumers are rightly becoming concerned about ‘food miles’, because the fossil fuel used in transporting food contributes to climate change through CO2 emissions,” says Soil and Health spokesperson, Steffan Browning. “However, New Zealand and overseas reports all show that organic production uses much less energy than conventional farming.”

Other bonuses are that organic production is the preferred consumer choice, it increases carbon sequestration and has much lower externalised environmental costs.

The Lincoln University report, Food Miles – Comparative Energy/Emissions Performance of New Zealand’s Agriculture Industry, by Saunders, Barber and Taylor, argues that with food miles, it is not just the distance that should be assessed but the total energy used, from production to plate, including transport.

The report, released in July, shows that New Zealand products use less energy, and have lower emissions per tonne of product delivered to the UK, than UK products do. It quotes a report by Defra (UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs): “…it can be more sustainable to import organic food into the UK than to grow non-organic food in the UK.”

The Lincoln report quotes Swedish research over 23 dairy farms, “…. these tests showed that the total energy use of organic dairy farms per unit of production was significantly less than each of the two conventional types of farms, …. A similar picture emerged for CO2 emissions.”

Soil & Health noted from the Lincoln report, that environmental costs of current farming systems when added to consumer prices are about 4 times that of the organic equivalent cost.

The Lincoln report also quoted a list of strategies for the consumer to avoid food miles when making purchases, provided by the UK Women’s Environmental Network. Their top five most ethical choices are (in order):

1. Organic, local and seasonal
2. Local
3. Fairtrade and organic
4. Organic
5. Fairtrade

The Soil & Health Association of NZ shares these principles as part of its Organic 2020 vision, but can see a place for sustainably produced organic goods from New Zealand being efficiently shipped to complement shortfalls in local British product.

While the Lincoln study did not consider carbon sequestration, American studies show that organic methods are far more effective than conventional methods at taking CO2 from the atmosphere and fixing it as beneficial organic matter in the soil. The 23-year Rodale Institute study calculated that if 10,000 mid sized U.S. farms converted to organic production, it would be equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road, or not driving 14.62 billion miles.

Former British Environment Minister Michael Meacher told a 2004 Soil Association conference in Edinburgh, that the government must boost organics to help Britain meet its Kyoto targets. He also highlighted the Rodale Institute research, which also found that soluble nitrogen fertilisers in conventional farming destroyed soil biota that trap greenhouse gases.

The Soil & Health Association of NZ sees continued government support for the organic sector as an important solution to food miles arguments, and to the Prime Minister’s aim of a truly sustainable New Zealand.