Greens set GE strategy

By KEVIN TAYLOR political reporter

The Green Party will take its opposition to genetic engineering direct to the public as the end of the moratorium on commercial release looms, but action against GE crops is not part of its plans.

The party is vowing to make plenty of noise in opposition to the lifting of the ban on commercial release of genetically modified organisms in October.

A session on possible strategies was held on the final day of the Greens' annual conference at Lake Karapiro yesterday.

However, co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said Green Party MPs and members would not take action such as ripping up crops.

"I'm sure there will be other groups in the community that will do that," she said.

"The Green Party isn't advocating or taking part in direct action - but direct action of that kind has happened in every country in the world where there has been controversy over genetic engineering."

She pointed out that crops would not be planted immediately once the moratorium lifts, because the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) had to process applications first.

One anti-GE group contacted last night had no comment to make about the possibility of direct action, and did not want to be identified.

The Greens were still aiming to change the Government's mind on the moratorium, Ms Fitzsimons said.

"Consumers must have the choice to eat GE-free produce, and farmers must be allowed to grow GE-free crops."

Ms Fitzsimons and co-leader Rod Donald ended the conference with a call to party faithful to take the anti-GE message direct to the people.

"The conference was a chance to let people see there are still things they can do, and informing and activating the public is a key one," she said.

But details of how the Greens plan to do that are unclear.

The party would announce its intentions in the next month or two, she said.

Ms Fitzsimons warned that once the moratorium went there would be nothing to protect food from contamination at the growing stage, or a labelling system to tell consumers what they were eating.

Those failures were contrary to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, which in 2001 gave the green light to proceed with caution with technology it dubbed the next frontier of civilisation. But Ms Fitzsimons said the "with caution" recommendation of the commission was being ignored in favour of the "proceed" recommendation.

The Greens would use every opportunity they could over the next few months to oppose the moratorium being lifted.

"The royal commission was very strong and clear we need to protect opportunities for GE-free food production, as well as for GE food production.

"We didn't agree with the outcome of the commission's report but at least if the Government does, we need to hold it to account to protect the right of New Zealanders to grow and eat, and be able to recognise GE-free food."

The party would also continue fighting the Government's decision to join American action aimed at forcing the European Union to lift a five-year moratorium on GE foods or face trade sanctions under World Trade Organisation rules.

However, despite the GE issue Mr Donald told the conference the bottom line at the next election would be that the Greens would rather Labour remained in office than the centre-right parties get in.

He said that if the Greens held the balance of power Labour would get its confidence and supply votes.