Tony Conner: We have to test GM in the Kiwi context

COMMENT

There is a common perception that when the moratorium on the release of genetically modified organisms expires on October 29, there will be a plethora of applications seeking the release of GM crops, and that agriculture will be plunged into an era of uncertainty. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There will be no flood of applications in early November. Once the moratorium is lifted, there will be insufficient time to process applications before the planting dates of most crops in the summer.

Furthermore, there is no interest from any potential applicants in applying for the release of GM crops. A survey by the Environmental Risk Management Authority to gauge the level of interest from private companies, research institutes and universities for release applications resulted in only one response of any substance.

This involved research at Crop & Food Research on GM potatoes with resistance to tuber moth. This does not involve an application for potential release to the potato industry, but instead to grow the potato crop at different sites to learn more about the science and the impacts of the technology on the environment.

The major GM crops are not grown widely in New Zealand. Of the 57.8 million hectares of GM crops grown globally last year, 98 per cent were accounted for by four crops - soybean (62 per cent), maize (21 per cent), cotton (12 per cent) and canola (5 per cent).

Soybean and cotton are not grown here at all, there is a small canola industry in Southland, and the area of maize for grain and silage is only 35,000ha.

Each year about 140 million hectares of maize is grown globally, of which only 9 per cent was GM last year, so there are far larger markets to expand to before New Zealand.

Furthermore, there is no economic demand for GM maize here; we do not have European corn borer, and weed control by existing herbicide systems is good.

The rigorous and immensely costly regulatory system associated with the field testing and release of GM organisms has frightened off most, if not all, potential overseas applicants.

For the "counter-season" seed multiplication it is simply much more convenient and cost effective to go to Chile. The market here is far too small to justify the expense of an application for crop production.

For GM crops that might be relevant to our agriculture in the next decade, the total area grown is tiny on the global scale. Too little seed would be sold to recover the costs associated with an application.

Why must the moratorium end when there is no interest from potential applicants in applying for the commercial release of GM crops?

It is important to facilitate scientific research into the development and evaluation of GM crops and their potential ecological and environmental impacts in the local context.

The introduction of the New Organisms and Other Matters Act, which will coincide with the end of the moratorium, will establish a new category for the release of GM organisms - conditional release. This step forward is entirely consistent with "keeping our options open" and "proceeding with caution", key outcomes of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.

Conditional releases on which controls can be imposed will be possible only when the moratorium ends. This must allow for the full evaluation of GM lines in a manner similar to the evaluation of potential new cultivars from traditional breeding programmes.

Implicit in such field trials will be the need to assess GM crops in farm-scale trials with most of the farming practices applied to existing crops.

This must involve all standard agronomic practices and the use of conventional farm machinery. The harvested produce must be allowed to undergo normal processing assessment using standard industry practices.

Clearly, such activities must be segregated and this will presumably be a key component of the controls under conditional release approvals. The nature of how conditional release will operate is still being developed, but if such approvals cannot allow field trials to be conducted this way, this category of release will serve no purpose.

It is not until GM crops are grown on this scale that it will be possible fully to investigate the ecological and environmental impacts of GM crops. New Zealand has a unique flora and fauna.

Any field studies designed to investigate the impacts of GM crops on the biodiversity of the soil biota or the invertebrate populations within our crop ecosystems can only be carried out here.

They must also involve experimental plots large enough to account for the natural variation in biodiversity across a landscape and the natural movement of species. Such studies will also require farm-scale GM trials. They, too, can be performed only if the moratorium ends.

What is the future for GM crops here? New Zealand-based GM research has not yet produced any products ready for commercial release. The closest example is probably our insect-resistant GM potatoes. Once the moratorium ends, these GM lines will still require at least five years of evaluation using farm-scale trials to gather all the information relevant to their biosafety and to identify the exact line on which an application for commercial release could be made. Another five years will then be required to multiply enough seed tubers to sell to potato growers.

We must have the opportunity to keep moving the science forward, so that we are in a better position to quickly adopt new technologies when they are developed.

The science of genetics is advancing at an extraordinary rate. Within the next five to 10 years, the complete DNA sequence in the genomes of all major crop species will be determined.

This information will be used to design and develop better crops and will provide opportunities many orders of magnitude greater than that ever dreamed possible by plant breeders in the past.

It will result in crops that can be grown with reduced use of pesticides, that can yield a more reliable supply of high-quality food with reduced blemishes, less natural toxins and allergens, and that can have substantially improved nutritional attributes.

While these are all goals of traditional breeding programmes, the future genetics will make crop breeding so much more efficient and targeted.

These advances will involve the use of GM technologies, but they, too, will become far more refined as the science of gene transfer develops further.

These advances will be achieved by moving genes from potatoes and related species back into potato, and genes from wheat and related species back into wheat, and so on.

We must not forget that GM offers many advantages for the transfer of genes within the germplasm resources already accessible by plant breeders.

New Zealand will severely reduce the capability of scientific progress in genetics, and run the serious risk of missing the opportunity to quickly adopt future technologies, if the moratorium does not end.

* Dr Tony Conner is a scientist with Crop & Food Research and a professorial fellow at Lincoln University. He has performed field trials of GM crops in New Zealand since 1988 and has been a consultant to international organisations on GM environmental and food safety issues.