Letter to the Editor - Feds push engineered grasses

It seemed a harmless enough thing to do, sowing beet seeds across the region's farms – what could go wrong?  Velvet leaf, that's what. 

  The pest plant, one of the most damaging known to farming, arrived in Southland mixed with the beet seeds and set off the emergency bells as soon as it was discovered. The cost of weeding it out was enormous and hasn't ended yet. 

  Two years earlier, it was the turn of swedes, mutagenically altered swede seeds immune to herbicide, sown across Southland farms causing more anxiety, expense and the deaths of hundreds of dairy cows. 

  These agricultural disasters are coming faster and faster, as farming intensifies. 

  Now, it's the turn of genetically-modified pasture grasses. They're not in Southland yet, but they'll be here soon, if Federated Farmers' president Dr William Rolleston gets his way. He has been pushing for the introduction of genetically-engineered grasses into our farmland for some time and now he's increasing the pressure on the New Zealand public to accept these unnatural seeds. 

  Did he miss the news reports about the velvetleaf crisis? Was he not listening when talk down here was all about cows dying after eating mutagenic swedes? 

  Could someone please bring Dr Rolleston up to speed?

Councillors fail GMO test

Environment Southland councillors submit to National Environmental Standard


BRITTANY PICKETT

Last updated 05:00, August 13 2015
Environment Southland will make a submission on a government proposal to create a nationally consistent approach to managing plantation forestry, but agreeing on the wording was not smooth sailing.

Councillors debated an amendment to its submission on the proposed National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry at a council meeting on Wednesday.

The proposed NES would replace regional and district councils' existing district and regional plan rules for managing plantation forestry, creating a nationally consistent approach.

The submission outlines Environment Southland's concerns that the national environmental standard would have a huge impact on the rules the council has in place to manage forestry in Southland and says implementation of the standard could affect the management of regionally specific issues, such as implementing the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and the potential loss of further biodiversity values.

However, councillor Robert Guyton was concerned the council was ignoring an important part of the national environmental standard.

The proposal includes the permitted planting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

READ MORE: Guidelines an attack on democracy - councillor

Policy and Planning manager Anita Dawe said the council did not have a say on whether GMOs could be planted either way because it was not allowed for in the regional policy statement.

Dawe believed land use restrictions came under the jurisdiction of district councils.

Councillor Neville Cook questioned Guyton's need for an amendment.

"How would we know if such material would be brought in? Are we going to have border security? I don't think it is enforceable on a regional level."

Most councillors agreed it should remain a central government decision.

Councillors Jan Riddell and Guyton both proposed amendments to the submission, asking for a statement about the concerns of the council about GMO planting being a permitted activity.

It was time the council had an opinion on such matters, Riddell said.

"I think that it is about time that this council took a lead on this in the community and formed an opinion on GMO products."

Both amendments were scrapped, with only three council members voting for the amendments to be added.

Following the meeting, Guyton said he was very disappointed the council failed to even try to retain the powers it had to act on behalf of Southlanders.

He believed the council should shoulder the responsibility for deciding on local issues and not "fob" it off to government, he said.

"The majority of the councillors today showed they were unwilling to represent the views of Southland people on genetic engineering and instead preferred to let the government make the decision about whether Southland should lose its GMO-free status."

Good idea for Southland

(After the original by Steffan Browning)
Southland should follow the Tasmanian Government's lead and have a moratorium on genetically engineered (GE/GMO) crops and animals to give food and agricultural industries the best market advantage, ES councillor Robert Guyton said today.

Tasmania announced yesterday that it would extend its moratorium on GE indefinitely to give its agricultural industry an advantage in marketing to increasingly food-safety conscious consumers.



There is a huge, premium market for GE-free products that Southland should be targeting
"Tasmania's smart approach has given it access to a high-value market whereas other Australian states have accepted some GE crops such as canola, which has caused contamination, market rejection issues, community discord, and loss of opportunity for non-GE producers.

"A permanent ban on GE would enhance Southland's image. Southland has no GE commercial crops or animal production at present with just two GE field trials and one legal GE equine influenza vaccine. We could go further than Tasmania and ban the GE field trials and release of GE vaccines.

"Tasmanian beef producers exporting to the USA celebrated yesterday's announcement and Southland producers should also be able to profit from the GE-free advantage.

"Resistance to GE food is building in the USA and the market for GE-free food is already well established in Europe. Asian markets are also becoming more and more sensitive to food safety issues. The best value for Southland exporters can be gained by reinstating a GE moratorium," said Mr Guyton.

Bruce's crystal ball

Surprise, surprise! The Federated Farmers see genetic modification as an 'enormous opportunity' "The world is hungry and growing." says the Fed's president Bruce Wills, and he wants to see, says he does see, in his magic ball, genetic engineering feeding the starving of the world. "So long as we don't trip ourselves up environmentally." Oh,yes!
That the president of Federated Farmers is using a crystal ball to predict the future of New Zealand farming is bad enough, but for him to be seeing genetic engineering as the solution, is enough for some to dismiss Bruce as a dangerous crank. He's dressed his desire for the globally-loathed 'scienceing-up' of food though, by using the word 'green'. This will be a 'second green revolution', he declares in his Southland Times article today, that will 'supercharge agriculture'.
Mr Wills was expected to bring  fresh, intelligent leadership to the Federation. These latest comments; his liking for the potentially ruinous use of genetic engineering in New Zealand and his fondness for his fortune telling with a crystal ball, prove otherwise.
No doubt Fonterra's top men, buoyed by Bruces powers of clairvoyance will announce shortly, their excited intention to introduce a super-duper, high-performing,save-the-world genetically-engineered pasture grass into New Zealand, which will, as per Bruce's crystal ball, save us and the planet in one terribly clever move!