Export plan for GM-tainted maize

By HELEN TUNNAH

Crops grown from seeds contaminated with genetically modified material may be grown and exported after harvest rather than automatically being destroyed.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says it will take days to track down hundreds of bags of maize seeds from a consignment imported this year and which might contain small numbers of GM seeds.

The accidental release of GM-contaminated seed is New Zealand's biggest, but Acting Biosecurity Minister Marian Hobbs yesterday told Parliament it was not a threat to human health or the environment."

But she was unable to offer any assurance that farmers who unwittingly planted the seed and might have crops destroyed would be compensated.

"I do not want to speculate in hypothetical terms about people's liability or costs," she said.

The Biosecurity Act covers compensation in the event of a pest or disease outbreak, and liability issues, but it is not clear whether the act can also apply to the release of GM-contaminated material under New Zealand's "zero tolerance" policy for GM contamination.

MAF has said that some of the contaminated seed has probably been planted.

The seed came into New Zealand after it was passed by a United States testing company which an MAF audit later found had faulty procedures.

The company, Biogenic Services, is no longer allowed to test seed for entry to New Zealand.

MAF retested some of the seeds through a Melbourne laboratory, which found low levels of contamination - less than one GM seed per 2000 seeds - in two of 15 consignments tested.


MAF is to seize 966 bags of that seed, but another 351 have been distributed to merchants, and some have probably been sold to farmers.

MAF spokesman Brett Sangster said yesterday a decision on what to do about any seeds planted would be made when it was found.

Some crops might be destroyed, but some might be allowed to be grown. They could be harvested and exported to a nation prepared to accept them.

Life Sciences Network chairman Dr William Rolleston said investigating the outbreak was a huge and unnecessary drain on MAF resources.

Scares such as this week's would happen again and again because of the zero tolerance policy on contamination. He said a more "sensible" tolerance policy was needed.