Andrew Hoggard: Kiwis are open to GMOs but is the Govt?

Genetically modified ryegrass could grow faster and result in less methane from livestock.

OPINION

Kiwis know that technology is the key to solving our problems of the future.

When it comes to reducing transport emissions, we know it’s much better if technology can allow us to switch to electric cars rather than have to reduce how much we drive. We know our future electricity system needs to be one where we have affordable, plentiful, reliable electricity, but that more and more of our electricity is generated with new solar, wind and geothermal technology.

New technologies are the key to achieving this future.

Agriculture will be no different. Our country will be much more prosperous if we can use technology to reduce our agricultural emissions rather than find ourselves in a situation where we simply farm less.

The problem with reducing agricultural emissions at present is that the solutions are not quite there yet. New technologies to stop cows producing methane, breed lower emissions animals or halt nitrous oxide emissions seem to always be an elusive two to five years away.

One technology that has shown promise is a new species of grass. Scientists from AgResearch have developed a cultivar of ryegrass that’s been shown to reduce methane emissions from cattle and reduce water quality-damaging nitrate losses.

Illustration / Rod Emmerson

Problem is, the grass is genetically modified. Due to New Zealand’s genetic modification laws the testing is all being done overseas.

Science NZ, an umbrella organisation representing New Zealand’s research institutes, put a call out recently for New Zealand to revisit our 20-year old genetic modification regulations. Federated Farmers agrees with Science NZ.

Federated Farmers is of the view that New Zealand will need all the technologies we can get our hands on to continue to compete in the coming decades. New methods of genetic modification, such as gene editing, means overseas farmers will have access to trees, crops and grasses that produce fruit that has better shelf life, corn that needs less fertiliser and milk that produces less methane. Each technology will mean our competitors can be more profitable and produce products that have a lower environmental footprint.

If New Zealand decides some tools are off the table to farmers in this country, our competitors will still use them, meaning our competitors can produce product at higher quality and more sustainably than we can.

Federated Farmers understands that genetic modification is an issue with history in New Zealand. Politicians are often scared to go near it - and this is a shame.

We wanted to test if the public opinion on genetic modification was still entrenched. We asked 1000 Kiwis, “Do you think New Zealand law should allow the use of genetic modification technology?” Interestingly, the results were quite split, with 35 per cent saying yes, 37 per cent no, and 28 per cent unsure.

So, no clear direction from this first question.

We asked a second question to a completely separate group of Kiwis. This meant that no one was influenced by their answer to the first question. The second question was, “New Zealand scientists using genetic modification have developed a new type of grass that can reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution from cattle and sheep. This grass is being trialled overseas due to New Zealand’s genetic modification laws. Do you think Kiwi farmers should be given the choice of using this new grass if they wish?”

With this second question 72 per cent of Kiwis believed farmers should be able to use genetically modified grass, while a mere 15 per cent were opposed, with the rest unsure.

A majority were in favour across National, Labour, Green and ACT voters.

I believe this second question shows that Kiwis do not have entrenched views on genetic modification. If posed a simple question on liberalising our laws, we are quite unsure but if presented with an opportunity to improve environmental outcomes, Kiwis are overwhelmingly supportive.

Andrew Hoggard.

This shows Kiwis are open to changing their view given the information presented to them, which is a great place for us to be as a country.

This year Federated Farmers is asking all political parties to commit to a review of New Zealand’s GMO laws. Kiwis have moved on and are open to change here, politicians should be too.

And it won’t only be agricultural greenhouse gas emissions where the opportunity lies.

Genetic modification can be used to produce sterile pine trees, reducing the risk of wilding pines. There may be opportunities to improve the nutrition of fruit, grain and vegetables.

Genetic modification also has a huge role in the future of medicine, as we saw with the amazing ability of the world to produce Covid-19 vaccines over the last two years.

So this year, while so much of politics may focus on the economic risks we presently face, Federated Farmers is putting on the table one big opportunity we believe sits in front of the country right now, and that is to embrace new technology as a tool to unlock solutions to some our big societal challenges.

- Andrew Hoggard is the president of Federated Farmers of NZ.