Anti-GM cause unites colourful crowd

By JEREMY REES

They came dressed as butterflies, organic peas, insects and the grim reaper - celebrities and ordinary citizens in a rainbow coalition to say no to genetic modification.

In one of the largest demonstrations seen in Auckland in recent years, a crowd estimated at up to 10,000 marched up Queen St on Saturday to send a message that New Zealanders do not want GM.

The Government is considering its response to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification which called for the country to "proceed with caution" including in field trials of modified materials.

Auckland coalition spokesman Annette Cotter, of Greenpeace, said: "We have a window of opportunity to put pressure on the Government to take into account public opposition to GE field trials."

Marchers came from as far away as Kaitaia and Wellington for the demonstration, starting at Queen Elizabeth Square before marching up Queen St.

Annette Cotter said most protesters believed the potential of genetic modification could be tested in the laboratory without allowing it to be tested in field trials where it could enter the food chain.

Some, including some Maori groups, believed there should be no tampering with living matter.

"People are coming at this from different angles; they have ethical or social or scientific concerns. Some just don't want to eat it."

The diversity of views and groups means that organising a national protest or welding together a political force is more difficult.

Annette Cotter said the "sentiment is there" for a national rally but organising protests so far had been done through local coalitions.

The rain-hit march included Green MPs Jeanette Fitzsimons and Nandor Tanczos, artist Pat Hanly and former pop singer Alannah Currie of the Thompson Twins, who organised celebrities to pose in specially designed T-shirts. It was one of the biggest since union protests in 1991 against the Employment Contracts Act, although most marchers pointed further back to anti-Springbok and anti-nuclear marches of the 1980s.

One marcher, Auckland researcher Jon Carapiet said: "The independent scientists are saying 'stop,' because the risks are so complex."

Others said ordinary consumers did not want genetically modified food, pointing to the decision last week of poultry giant Tegel to stop feeding its chickens genetically modified soya feed.

Sprinkled among the anti-GM banners were others supporting the royal commission and calling for field trials.

William Rolleston, chairman of the pro-GM Life Sciences Network, said: "Many members of the public are getting tired of the Green rhetoric which has slammed the Royal Commission report, which they called for, because it didn't support their ideology."

One pro-GM supporter, Liam Williams, told the Herald he and others holding placards were ordered out of Aotea Square by a policeman who said he could not guarantee their safety.

"I contradict what former rock stars and Shortland Street actors think about genetic engineering and I held up a placard on Queen Street that said so.

"It was 1981 all over again," Mr Williams said. "I saw people spitting and screaming abuse at anyone who offered an opinion that differed from their own."

www.nzherald.co.nz/ge

Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification

GE lessons from Britain

GE links

GE glossary