Zero tolerance for GM crops could be eased

By ANNE BESTON

Officials are reconsidering New Zealand's "zero tolerance" threshold for GM plants.

The move looks set to rekindle the GM debate - just when the Green Party had decided to adopt a softer line to help Labour get re-elected.

Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said any attempt to lift the threshold would meet strong opposition.

"If Labour is interested in remaining the Government after the next election, they would be quite foolish to do something that would be such a red rag to a bull for the Green Party," she said.

"I actually don't think Labour will go there, but if they try, we will use every avenue open to us."

The Greens' hard line on keeping the moratorium prevented any chance of coalition talks between the two parties after the 2002 election.

The Greens dropped their demand for reinstatement of the GM moratorium at the weekend conference, saying they were prepared to open negotiations with no bottom line after next year's election.

But now the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is looking at the "practicalities" of New Zealand's "zero tolerance" policy for genetically modified organisms after the latest accidental release of contaminated maize seed.

Low-level contamination was found in seed batches imported from the United States and undetected by a US testing laboratory.

The maize has grown in South Auckland, Waikato, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay.

It is now being harvested, transported and processed under strict MAF supervision but, once it has been processed so it cannot germinate, grain companies would be allowed to sell it, said MAF spokesman Brett Sangster.

The maize seed was sold to about 30 buyers but poses no human health risk. The variety of GM seed detected in the contaminated consignments is generally used as stock feed.

Maintaining the strict zero tolerance threshold "was clearly an issue", Mr Sangster said.

"There is a lot of work involved in maintaining a zero-tolerance regime and we are having a look to see what other countries do in the same circumstances."

Ms Fitzsimons called that "code for, 'We don't think it's practical to maintain it'."

The accidental release of low-level contaminated seed last month was the biggest so far. MAF seized enough bags to plant around 350ha of maize with contamination at one seed per 2000, or 0.05 per cent.

If New Zealand had a tolerance level of 0.05 per cent, below which contamination is almost impossible to detect, the "LibertyLink" maize could have been grown here legally.

Under the zero tolerance threshold, all detectable GM seed is illegal unless approved by the Environmental Risk Management Authority.

Pro-GM lobby group Life Sciences Network has consistently called for the policy to be dropped as unrealistic.