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Saturday, July 20, 2013

GMOs and councils with spine.

Should Councillors at Environment Southland take responsibility for the release or restriction of GMOs in Southland? I say, of course they should, who better to make such decisions? The question was recently debated, tersely and without much depth,  and eventually buried under a blanket of hurrumphing. Today, I found this comment to support my argument and have forwarded it to those councillors who were unable to see an argument for maintaining a discretionary role around genetically modified organisms.

Nick Smith, as Minister for the Environment said in his letter (2010): 
"Decisions on whether to approve a GMO are best undertaken by the independent, quasi-judicial body, the Environmental Risk management Authority (ERMA). However, this does not preclude a council from restricting or preventing the use of GMOs in their region, provided that this action meets the relevant requirements of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA)"