Watchdog wants role in GM trials

A government environmental watchdog wants to be part of official inspections of genetic modification (GM) field trials following a botched trial at Lincoln.

A special committee of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) has recommended that Erma representatives accompany Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) staff on trial inspections, especially in the first year.

The ministry should also do more non-notified checks after the mishandled Plant & Food Research trial, the committee said.

Erma can make recommendations only to MAFBNZ, which enforces environmental controls for GM work.

Anti-GM campaigners have criticised the Erma report as "weak" and a "whitewash".

Soil and Health Association spokesman Steffan Browning, who last December found a flowering plant at the Lincoln GM trial site in breach of control rules, warned of further breaches, despite Erma's recommendations.

"It's not strong enough. None of the reports has been strong enough," he said. "While they appeared to be thorough, they were still weak in their outcomes. I think it's time they stopped these open-field trials."

Erma's report said that without Browning's notification, the breach "may not have been identified for some time".

GM kale had not been removed entirely, and the plants had regrown.

MAFBNZ did not find the flowering plant on December 22 because the trial's manager had removed it that morning.

Plant & Food admitted the breach – one of three at the site – to MAFBNZ after The Press sent it copies of Browning's photos, and the kale plant was inspected again.

GE-Free New Zealand president Claire Bleakley said the regulators had been lax.

"It [Erma's report] is a whitewash full of excuses and is a minimisation of the seriousness of this breach."

She said the biggest concern was that the trial was still "live".

However, Plant & Food spokesman Roger Bourne said the trial would not be reactivated and Plant & Food had no plans for other GM field trials in "the foreseeable future".

Bourne said Erma had recognised the hard work the Crown research institute undertook to correct its procedures.

"We do, to a certain extent, have to put the issue behind us, but we can only do that if we make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

"It's embarrassing and it breaks the trust with the general public. We need to do better."

The 10-year trial of GM broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and forage kale at Lincoln was scrapped in its first year after the flowering kale plant was found by Browning.

This year, MAFBNZ ordered a five-year programme of surveillance and soil management at the site.

- © Fairfax NZ News