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Soil & Health welcomes end to GE animal trials after 25 years of suffering

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MEDIA RELEASE

6 OCTOBER 2025

Aotearoa New Zealand – The Soil & Health Association of New Zealand welcomes the end of animal genetic engineering trials that have taken place at AgResearch’s Ruakura facility for more than two decades.

“These experiments caused immense animal suffering and should never have been allowed to happen,” said Charles Hyland, chair of Soil & Health.

The Association applauds GE Free NZ for exposing the scale of the harm. Their report, based on AgResearch’s own annual statements, documents spontaneous abortions, cancers, deformities and other adverse effects on cattle, sheep and goats.

“After 25 years and tens of thousands of dollars of public money, these experiments have delivered no benefits,” Hyland said. “We are deeply concerned they could resume if the proposed Gene Technology Bill is passed. Animals must not be subjected to such cruelty again.”

“New Zealanders – and our overseas markets – expect high animal welfare standards and food that is healthy, ethical and safe. The future lies in organic and sustainable food and farming.” 

ENDS

FURTHER INFORMATION: Genetically Engineered Animals in New Zealand 2010 – 2025: Part 2 – The second fifteen years (GE Free NZ)

Media contacts:

Charles Hyland, Chair, Soil & Health Association of New Zealand, 027 707 0747
Philippa Jamieson, Organic NZ editor, Soil & Health Association of New Zealand, 027 547 3929 

Email: editor@organicnz.org.nz
Website: www.soilandhealth.org.nz

TOP IMAGE: Genetically engineered cows at AgResearch’s Ruakura facility in 2011 (Photo: Steffan Browning)

Worried about ‘free-range’ chickens? Choose organic!

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MEDIA RELEASE  3 May 2019

“The only way to ensure that the chickens you are eating are genuinely free range is to choose organic,” says Marion Wood, co-chair of the Soil & Health Association.

She points out that there is no enforceable industry standard for free-range farming. Farms are regularly audited by the Ministry of Primary Industries for food safety standards, but these standards do not relate to auditing free-range farming practices.

“What this means is that the scope of a ‘free-range’ label on your chickens is actually very wide. People think of happy chickens wandering in a field, but the reality is that the label ‘free range’ can be used by farms that confine their hens to small spaces or subject them to overcrowding. In 2014, it came to light that a farmer had been selling cage eggs as ‘free range’ for over two years – something that slipped under the radar because there was no authority checking such claims.”

But if you choose certified organic chickens, says Soil & Health, you know that the hens are looked after and their quality of life guaranteed because the farms are audited every year.

To get BioGro certification, farms must not have more than 10 hens per square metre in fixed housing or 16 per square metre in mobile sheds. Hens must have unrestricted access to outside runs and access to fresh grass or a forage crop containing a diversity of species. Other organic standards are similar.

Marion Wood suggests everyone makes the change:

“Organic food is grown naturally without the routine use of synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. Certified organic chickens are healthy chickens with a good quality of life – something that the label ‘free-range’ alone doesn’t guarantee.”

Animal welfare

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Every year thousands of animals in New Zealand are farmed intensively, kept in unhygienic and cramped conditions, with high levels of stress and injury, and unable to express normal behaviours. This is ethically unacceptable and contrary to the stated principles in the Animal Welfare Act.  Additionally, large numbers are subjected to cruelty through drug and chemical testing.

The Soil & Health Association advocates for the highest standards of animal welfare.

We believe that:

All animals should be treated with compassion and respect and be optimally nourished.

If animals are to be slaughtered then this should be done in the most humane way possible and as close to the point of production as possible to reduce stress on the animals.

Any farming methods that cause animals to suffer or prevent them from expressing normal patterns of behaviour should be phased out.

Drug and chemical testing should use in silico and in vivo methods to the greatest extent possible.

We are also opposed to:

The live exporting of animals.

The use of sow crates, battery cages, colony cages, and standing-room-only pens for cattle, and any other forms of close confinement for animals that prevent them from expressing their natural instincts and tendencies.

Cruel practices such as debeaking and toe-cutting of poultry, tail docking of cows and pigs and mulesing of sheep.

Vivisection.

Unnecessary testing of drugs and chemicals on animals including testing GMO and GE cloning.

 

We support the internationally recognised Five Freedoms of animal welfare.

                                            Photo credit: Nick Holmes