Protesters remind food board of GE issues

By ANNE BESTON

Protest and industry groups are lining up on either side of the debate on genetically engineered food in the lead-up to a decision on labelling.

Protesters gathered outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Auckland yesterday as the board of the Australian and New Zealand Food Authority met representatives of consumers and manufacturers.

The authority is expected to announce a labelling regime this week. Its board has made a recommendation on the labelling of GE ingredients to Health Minister Annette King and nine Australian state and territorial health ministers. They will announce their decision on Friday.

Previously, they agreed that food with more than 0.1 per cent of GE ingredients would be labelled, but some Australian states could be backing away from that to a 1 per cent threshold.



Sue Kedgley, a Green Party MP and a campaigner for safe food, said the ministers were looking for a compromise that would not serve the interests of consumers.

"People have a right to know if their loaf of bread contains GE ingredients or not," she said.

Meanwhile, the Government's environmental watchdog has officially announced approval for human genes to be put into a herd of Waikato dairy cows, a week after the Herald revealed the decision.

The Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) had debated for more than a year whether to allow a gene that produces the human myelin basic protein to be injected into cattle.

The cows will be milked to see if they reproduce the protein in sufficient quantities for research into a possible treatment for multiple sclerosis.

Waikato Maori objected to the experiment, which will be carried out at crown research institute AgResearch's Hamilton site.

But the authority rejected a submission from Tainui sub-tribe Ngati Wairere that the research be stopped because it breached Maori spiritual and cultural beliefs.

"If the committee were to decline the present application because of Ngati Wairere's concerns, all transgenic research ... might have to be terminated," Erma said.

The authority then effectively passed the issue of Maori objections to genetic technology to the Royal Commission on Genetic Engineering which will begin formal hearings next month but is not expected to report to the Government for at least a year.

Erma said a broader approach was required on the issue of Maori concerns, which would be better addressed by the royal commission.

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