Gene plan meets fierce opposition

By ANNE BESTON

A state-owned research institute wanting to experiment with human and goat genes in calf foetuses will run up against a legal challenge even before a public hearing gets under way.

Waikato-based AgResearch has been experimenting with human genes in calf foetuses for more than two years, but wants approval to expand the research to using mice, goat, deer and sheep genes as well.

Of 863 public submissions made on the application, 856 are opposed.

Both sides in the GM debate see this case as a key test of the Government's new, stricter controls on genetic modification passed by Parliament this year.

Tomorrow's public hearings on the AgResearch proposal will begin with legal arguments over whether the Government's gene science watchdog, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma), can legally make a decision on the application.

Lawyers representing a Wellington accountant and environmental consultant, Wendy McGuinness, will argue that AgResearch's experiments to create "transgenic" cows is so short on specifics the risks cannot be properly assessed.

Ms McGuinness was involved in a High Court challenge to a previous Erma ruling on AgResearch's transgenic cow research, but Erma's decision giving the green light to that work was eventually upheld.

Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said this application should be thrown out because it was too general.

She claimed the experiments were a "Trojan horse" to create genetically modified food products under the guise of doing medical research.

"They're saying there are a whole raft of proteins they want to make and they'll kind of make up their minds as they go along."

She said it appeared AgResearch wanted to test its ability to create transgenic animals and would later decide what it could use them for.

One possible use for transgenic cows was to create genetically modified "designer milk" and dairy products.

But under legislation that regulates gene research, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act, scientists had to specify the exact nature of their work.

In its application, AgResearch says the experiments are a "project" rather than a test of any particular gene. The institute wants to research how cows express foreign proteins in their milk, but does not specify what the results of the work might be.

The Erma hearings are scheduled for three days and begin in Hamilton tomorrow.

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