Will Foley.
To genetically engineer or not is the multimillion-dollar question that is hanging over the Hastings District agriculture sector.
The debate over whether or not Hastings should remain free of GE material was thrust back into the spotlight last week with the release of an international academic report which debunks horror stories of mutations and vitamin deficiencies caused by consuming such foods.
If you can't grow your product then there is no premium to be had in the first place is there.
It found the health risk of consuming GE products is nil, in fact the advances create healthier foods, and are even beneficial to the environment. Twenty professors compiled decades of research from a handful of universities around the globe in what is said to be the largest ever report of its kind. Funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, it is independent of private enterprise, or produce industries.
This report is pertinent to the region, with Hastings District Council taking a GE free stance for the next 10 years.
Mayor Lawrence Yule said while the council did not have a philosophical opposition to GE-based products, it was the uncontrolled release of GE products they were concerned about. He said the decision to go GE free was about adding as much value at the market end.
He said their view had been that by being GE free as a district actually adds some value in the marketplace. "We should extract that value for our growers."
Anti-GE lobby group Pure Hawke's Bay's president Bruno Chambers dismissed the findings, saying "these reports come and go".
He said the biggest hurdle for the GE industry was convincing customers they were safe and that market perception was otherwise.
"The marketplace is the indicator of what is acceptable and the supermarkets are a very good judge of what their consumers want," he said.
However, Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Will Foley said "it definitely backs up our argument" that GE technology is safe to use and should be made available to those who want to use it.
Mr Foley said while Federated Farmers supports those who want to remain GE free, the group also wants to support farmers who want the choice of taking up the technology.
"We definitely don't want to close the door on it," he said, especially if new technology could help farmers struggling with drought.
"If those guys had technology available to them such as drought tolerant grasses that grew better with less moisture - then farmers would be really interested to look at that," he said.
However, Mr Chambers said in adopting such a technology farmers were being deprived of the choice of whether or not they wanted to be GE free.
"If you are talking grasses they are incredibly promiscuous.
"Once they are released it would be very difficult to contain them," he said.
"So you are depriving the vast majority perhaps of farmers the choice of marketing to a premium brand."
Mr Foley said "if you can't grow your product then there is no premium to be had in the first place is there".
The alternative was to get on board with the technology to mitigate the threats to people's businesses if they don't have any other options.
"That is why drought tolerant grass is one tool that farmers with this potential climate change happening have that they would want to look at," he said.
Canterbury University Genetics Professor Jack Heinemann said while farmers should not be deprived of this choice, at present there aren't any crops like this on offer.
"So at the moment what I would say is that Hastings farmers have not been denied anything because it doesn't exist."
Mr Foley said the commitment to Hastings being GE free for 10 years could prove problematic for the research and development of such technology.
"If the majority takes that approach then where are our scientists and research going to come from around this issue - they are not," he said.
"There is going to be no incentive to look into that tech and so we will miss out on that opportunity and fall way behind."
University of South Wales Biotechnology Professor Denis Murphy said New Zealand needed to decide if it was going to "join the party or not".
Professor Murphy said new types of forage grass for sheep and dairy were being developed and were already being taken on by other countries.
He said it seemed crazy not to use the grass because there's nothing wrong with it, it's just an advanced form of breeding.
Mr Chambers said this was an extraordinary comment to make.
"There have been a lot of silver bullets promised in the past and grasses have been one of them."