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Update
The Gene Technology Bill has passed its first reading. For more information and for submission templates etc., see The Gene Technology Bill by Flag n Fix.
If you’ve received Card: GE in your letterbox or directly, you may like to scroll straight down to More Information and References.
Front & Back Image of Card: GE
If you want to help spread the word, at the end of this post is an image of how the text below easily fits onto an A4 sheet of paper/light card so you get 4 cards per sheet. It’s an ideal size to slip into letter boxes or to give to people you meet.
Text Front
GE & the National Party
1. National intends to end the ban on GMOs in NZ. Are they being deceptive, as there is NO ban if certain safety conditions are met?
2. National says they’ll enable the safe use of gene technology. As they’re going to deregulate NEW GM breeding techniques with no safety record, isn’t that courting danger?
3. National says GMO foods will be labelled, but in their spin they fail to mention broad categories of GM food will no longer be classified as GMOs. Isn’t that also deceptive?
4. National says their policy will unlock enormous healthcare & environmental benefits etc., but they fail to mention NO country with relaxed laws have achieved any of the above. So why can we?
5. Highly qualified, Independent scientists, such as Prof. Heinemann (Canturbury University), warn against relaxing our GMO laws. New gene editing tools allow entire fields to be sprayed with genome editors. No creature or plant will be safe from GE contamination.
Text Back
6. Where’s the proof that taking such enormous risks with our clean, green image will result in benefits? There’s proof of harm. Once GMOs are out of the bottle, we cannot go back to the way it was.
7. The Scottish Government refuses to risk Scotland’s clean, green image, so why ruin New Zealand’s for pipe dreams?
8. Has National been influenced/hoodwinked by industry propaganda and deception?
9. Why not embrace the new, safe NON-GM breeding techniques that out perform GE?
Is it because GE products are patented? The government is investing in public-private partnerships. Is National seeing $$$ not sense?
In GE unregulated countries, the ensuing patent regulations have been destructive to farmers and healthy food production. Please photo, copy, share.
Visit: https://flagnfix.substack.com/p/card-ge.
Also see: https://www.gefree.org.nz/
And: https://www.gmwatch.org/en/
More Information and References
A. Flag n Fix Articles:
1. GE & NZ’S National Party
See here. A bit of what’s included:
(a) The article links to Nationals Policy, i.e. their 13 page booklet Harnessing Biotech and their propaganda.
(b) In a short RCR clip, Prof. Antoniou explains why National’s reasons are unrealistic pipe dreams. He then goes on to explain why building on traditional techniques is the safe, beneficial, logical and doable way to go. In another clip Prof. Michael Antoniou talks about how this technology is nowhere near as precise, predictable and safe as Government and Industry claim. See here and here.
[Also see Flag n Fix Note: We Do Not Need Genetic Modification to Feed the World? Watch a Reality Check Radio clip, in video format, of Professor Michael Antoniou of Kings College London talking with Paul Brennan on the myths and truths concerning GMOs and why deregulation isn’t the way forward. See here.]
(c) There have been 13 field trials in New Zealand and NOT one of them have shown benefit. For instance, in the trials, the GE brassica plants got bacterial rot, the GE onions performed poorly, and experiments with GE animals resulted in so much suffering and deformity, the poor animals had to be killed.
2. GE Contamination
See here. A bit of what’s included:
(a) By National relaxing the GE regulations, humans and animals could be exposed to gene-altering pesticides. See: Scientists Sound the Alarm over Gene Altering Pesticides.
(b) The Scottish Government refuses to risk Scotland’s clean, green image, so why is the National Government keen to ruin New Zealand’s?
The Scottish government says:
Scotland is world renowned for its natural, high quality food and drink, and this is greatly promoted both at home and abroad by our reputation for being clean and green. This is a key strength of Scottish agriculture – so it’s important that we take steps to protect this.
The use of GM crops could threaten the integrity of this brand, and therefore banning their cultivation is central to its protection and promotion.
(c) Claire Bleakley from GE Free NZ talks about Daisyland GM Dairy in this RCR Replay and more. GM dairy is synthetic and full of chemicals….It is NOT food, it's a chemical concoction. And in this Replay she talks about the GE mosquito failure; the rye grass failure; GE quail meat made with synthetic gook—growth hormones included; and more.
(d) Listen to some short clips from an RCR interview with Prof. Heinemann (a geneticist from Canterbury University NZ). He talks about the dangers of GE and includes an experiment that had undesired, harmful consequences. There is NO need to take these risks.
The breeding of improved varieties is now faster than GE because of non-GE lab techniques.
NZ is NOT going to be left behind if we don't embrace GE agriculture; we will be left behind if we do.
3. NZ First: A WOW and WOE Week!
See here. A bit of what’s included:
(a) Listen to Shane Jones on why he supports GMOs.
(b) However, there is no evidence that GE can deliver on food security. However, there's evidence that shows non-GM crops outperform GM crops. Links to an article about GM wheat, which comes with cancer-producing agrotoxins and is less productive than conventional wheat. See here.
(c) Are our politicians aware of the failures mentioned in this study: The Failures of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOS): Resistance, Regulation, and Rejection? Printed here and here and here. From the study's abstract:
GMOs have failed to gain price parity with their non-GM counterparts, and they attract price penalties. Segregation of GMOs and non-GMOs has failed…. GM has failed the coexistence test with GMO growers contaminating neighbouring farms…. Most GMO crops are Glyphosate dependent. Glyphosate...is implicated in the causation of multiple cancers....
(d) And in his article: GMO, Failed Promises; Flawed Science: A Serious Health and Safety Issue, Dr. Don M. Huber (Emeritus Professor, Purdue University), says there are NO peer reviewed scientific studies that show that GMO crops, or the chemicals they are engineered to tolerate or produce, are safe for human or animal consumption…. See here.
4. FSANZ Friend or Foe?
See here. A bit of what’s included:
FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) are in the process of changing their regulations. The proposed changes are major and will redefine the definition for GMOs. Broad categories of foods that are modified using new breeding techniques (NBT), a misnomer for new genetic engineering techniques, will NO longer be classified as GMOs and therefore will not be labelled as such. In other words, we’ll be feed a diet of lies. See here.
I think it is deceptive of National to say on page 10 in their plan Harnessing Biotech:
Will consumers know if they are eating genetically modified food?
Yes. National supports food labelling so consumers know what they are eating.
B. GE Free NZ
https://www.gefree.org.nz/
GE Free’s recent articles destroy National’s claims and exposes their recklessness and their alliance to industry: Co-existence with GE crops in New Zealand is impossible and Trust the GE Science – whose?
C. GM Watch
https://www.gmwatch.org/en/
GM Watch’s recent articles also destroy National’s claim that GE and non-GE crops can co-exist: Non-GMO farmer forced to grow GMO dicamba soybeans to avoid crop damage. Also their claim that with the new genetic engineering processes, genetic modifications are too hard if not impossible to detect is sheer nonsense. See Successful detection methods for new genomic techniques.
D. Reality Check Radio
List of RCR interviews on the subject: See here.
What You Can Do
See here.
Layout For Printing
Here’s a way to organize the text to get 4 cards per A4 page. Body text: Size 13.
Front
Back
Genetic Engineering is a Fraud and a Con. It's the way the Tranznational Chemical Cartel make themselves rich and you poor. GE crops are bred to absorb weedkillers like Roundup which cause liver and kidney disease as well as cancers. If you want to know more you could read the book
“The Monsanto Papers - Corruption of Science and Grievous Harm to Public Health by Gilles-Eric Seralini with Jerome Douzelet published 2020, 162 pages, ISBN: 978-1-5107-6763-8. This book answers all the questions above and more. You will likely be shocked at the evil tactics Big Business uses to discredit anybody who clearly shows that their product is dangerous to human health.