A. Gene Technology Bill: Written Submissions
The Health Committee received almost 15,000 written submissions on the Gene Technology Bill. You can read submissions here on the Parliament website.
I have read over 750 of these submissions. And what a read. The support for throwing out the bill is astronomical. Nearly everyone was against this bill. And no wonder, GE/GM has a history of destruction.
B. Re: David Seymour & GE
David Seymour is the leader of the ACT Party, and soon to be NZ's deputy Prime Minister.
David Seymour calls those who push back against gene technology loonies.
As the vast majority of submissions are against the gene technology bill, it appears David Seymour believes a large number of New Zealanders are loonies.
Name calling is used to shut people up and close down a conversation. It is a method used to avoid answering a question with facts. You can listen to David Seymour on Telegram here, on You Tube here and on RCR here .
Tane Webster asks Seymour about the potential economic risks of the Gene Technology Bill. He asks Seymour if he is aware of the recently published report by the New Zealand Institute for Economic Research. The report shows between 10 and 20 billion dollars could be lost from our agricultural exports sector. You can view the report here.
Seymour brushes the report aside as if it is not worth considering. He goes on to say:
New Zealand has the potential to be a superpower in agriculture genetics. Unfortunately, because we have allowed the LOONIES frankly to dominate the debate for too long we are now playing catch up.
I'd say catch up to WHAT! What, in particular, are we missing out on? The likes of Vitamin C rich potatoes! We do NOT need such novelty crops.
As many GMOs will only be assumed as safe or low risk to our environment and health, they do have the potential to cause short-term and long-term harm. I'd rather get my vitamin C from food naturally rich in Vitamin C like blackcurrants and oranges as nature intended and not take such unnecessary, pointless risks.
In a recent article, Dr Guy Hatchard lists some GM produce that will flood our supermarket shelves if this bill proceeds. We won't know they are GMOs as they will NOT be labelled and will be referred to as NATURAL. The deceit is mind-boggling and dangerous.
One product in the pipeline is mustard greens without its pungent taste, apparently to make it more palatable. The problem is, the phytonutrients associated with its pungent taste have been closely linked to its powerful anticancer effects. The more pungent the mustard is, the more phytonutrients it contains.
There will likely be no testing done to see if this mutilated mustard has any health benefits and no one will investigate if it is associated with harms. So we replace a known extremely healthy vegetable with one that has NO history of safety! One that may cause cancer instead of helping to prevent it. And what is more, it won’t be labelled as GM but as natural. We won’t know if we are eating a food that has a history of safety and benefits or some GE, untested version of it. And what is more, there will likely be nothing to stop this GE mustard crop from contaminating natural varieties.
NO country has benefited more from gene technology than from NON-GE biotechnology.
In fact, those countries that have gone down the genetic engineering route have created superweeds, superbugs and plants NOT as resilient to changing weather conditions as their natural counterparts. Also, in the long term, genetic engineered crops have produced poorer yields.
And what is more, GMOs are associated with the contamination of the environment, the harm of beneficial creatures and microbes, and are also linked to ill-health, including cancer.
I think it is far better NOT to play catch up to such catastrophes.
So who are really the loonies—those who created the above problems or those who tried to stop them happening?
References Validating the Above Claims
The 2023 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. From the report:
The proliferation of invasive super weeds now occupy 60 million acres of US farmland. This is causing economic loss and serious depression to farmers.
America's Agriculture is 48 times more toxic than 25 years ago. See here.
GMO insect-resistant corn crops in jeopardy. From the article:
New research adds to evidence that the effectiveness of popular genetically engineered traits used to protect corn and cotton from insects is failing, putting U.S. corn production potential in jeopardy, and spurring a need for increased insecticide use.
Too much of a good thing: Lessons from compromised rootworm Bt maize in the US Corn Belt. Rootworm pests have developed resistance to BT corn that was designed to eliminate them. This is resulting in substantial losses for farmers. Dr Guy Hatchard refers to this problem and more in his article The Truth Will Set Us Free.
Pesticide-resistant GMO crops kill beneficial wasp that helps farmers defeat pests. See here.
Genetic engineering endangers the protection of species. Why the spread of genetically engineered organisms into natural populations has to be prevented—a report by Testbiotech, the Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology.
Excerpt from the report’s conclusions:
There is absolutely no plausibility in the assumption that human intelligence can, with the help of genetic engineering, intervene in the complex foundations of life in a safe and predictable way.
Bayer Forges Ahead with New Crops Resistant to 5 Herbicides
The new variety of corn, MON 87429, would be bred with other hybrid varieties to produce seeds that, when planted, will grow despite being sprayed by glyphosate, dicamba, 2,4-D, quizalofop, and glufosinate.
How is that sustainable or good for the environment? Cancer rates will surge. Soils will be contaminated.
GM Bt rice may negatively impact beneficial predator spider. See here.
New GE soil microbes could threaten soil health. See here.
CRISPR Gene Editing: New Evidence of ‘Potentially Irreversible Safety Risks
Researchers at Rice University found that CRISPR-induced double-strand breaks in the DNA caused numerous large unintended on-target genetic damages…
NON-GM Successes: a very impressive list.
Despite the usual hyperbole about the promise of GM disease resistant crops, hardly any have been commercialised anywhere in the world and some of the biggest claims to success have been exposed as false. Non-GM plant breeding, on the other hand, has achieved success after success.
Apple fungal resistance without genetic engineering
From the article:
Conventional plant breeding succeeds where GM has failed...
GM crops with their limited traits fail to perform as well as their natural counterparts in yields and in changing weather conditions.
See Non-gmo corn seed outperform gm seed in field trials
and GE agriculture is outclassed by Europes non-gm approach
and Stop overselling GE on yield. From the article:
Yield is a highly complex genetic trait
Khaipho-Burch et al also point out that yield is…controlled by thousands of gene variants, with each one having a small effect. Manipulating one or a few genes with GM cannot produce significant yield rises.
In the following clip, copied from a previous Flag n Fix article, Dr Antoniou says it is not just the functioning of one or two genes that confer drought tolerance, or pathogen resistance, or high yield; it is the functioning of the whole genome of the plant, many gene families working together that confers what is known as these complex genetic traits.
The only way you can bring about these combinations of gene families to give you a complex trait is through natural breeding. Gene editing is only going to play around with a few genes.
Dr Antoniou gives an example. If you alter one gene crucial for the infection of a fungus, how long is it going to take for the fungus to adapt so it can bypass that one gene block.
You can listen to the full interview here.
GE crops eventually fail. Pests and weeds adapt to overcome these one or two gene blocks and then major problems occur.
I believe David Seymour needs to reconsider who he calls the loonies.
David Seymour: NZ, a Superpower in GE!
David Seymour ALSO says New Zealand has the potential to be a superpower in agriculture genetics.
Really? In what way? A superpower in unregulated experimentation on all lifeforms and their environment.
In other words, we have the potential to be the world's leading guinea-pig superpower if this bill passes as NZ will deregulate more GE techniques and GMOs than any other nation. In other words, our health and environment will be subjected to risks that are unacceptable to any other country.
C. Mark Camerson (NZ ACT party MP) Warns Against Rushed Decisions
At least Mark Cameron (MP from ACT) appears to have a better perspective than his leader. At least, he is open to the need for more discussion. He says if we slow down, we can make better, well-informed choices.
He says:
A lot of the GE technology is in the space of trying to help farmers reduce on-farm emission profiles. I think we could have two conversations in parallel and one would ameliorate the risk of the other. If we take the heat out of the engine about all things climate change, maybe the rush on for GE and its conversation will be a slower one. And there will be more insights into how the outcomes will affect New Zealanders.
Watch a 1 minute clip on Telegram and/or watch the entire 19 minute RCR interview here.
Danger, Commonsense & Cow Farts
I have not found anything in the Gene Technology Bill to prevent the regulator and the government minister in charge from being captured by Industry Interests—i.e. to become GE experimentation facilitators at the expense of and to the detriment of the general public. In other words, there is nothing in this bill to protect the public from a gene-crazy regulator and politician.
There is nothing in this bill to protect the public, the environment and all life from gene-crazy LOONIES.
The earth doesn't have a cow-farting problem, like many who push GE say we do. It's madness to think we have. See here.
Why is the government spending heaps of taxpayer money on trying to reduce cow farts via GE and other means. The government has entered a public private partnership with AgriZero, a company focused on helping farmers reduce methane emissions. AgriZero has already had hundreds of millions of dollars from the government, or should I say the taxpayer. See here.
Their trying to reduce cows farting is a loony thing to try and do. Just feed cows a healthy, natural, varied diet to produce healthy cows—that is where the focus should be. Perhaps this cow-farting nonsense is to create a market to sell a loony and unfortunately potentially harmful product.
Although the country does not have a cow-farting problem, it does have a heavily, over-processed food problem causing all kinds of sickness.
All this fake industry food creates pollution to our environment and widespread sickness; whereas, cows farting causes NONE.
Image from https://www.malone.news/p/sunday-strip-jumping-off-a-cliff
D. MPs & the Gene Technology Bill
I pray NZ First will stop this bill or enough MPs from the coalition government will cross the floor and vote against it.
With the deregulation of GE and GMOs, we will not have any choice—GE will invade every aspect of our lives.
GE is an ethical issue and therefore MPs should be free to vote with their conscience and not be forced to party vote.
E. What you can do
1. Sign and share the petition to Halt the Gene Technology Bill and set up a Commission of Inquiry. See here. The petition closes on the 17 June and will be presented to Parliament in July. Everyone’s welcome to be there for the presentation.
2 Do what you can to spread the word and inform MPs of the dangers associated with this bill. For MP contact details see Have Your Say.
F. Additional Information
First-of-its-Kind, searchable Database of Scientific Studies documents harm from GMOs. Direct database link and link to Toxin Free USA.
GMO-Free Coalition. A project to gather together GMO Free groups from around the world with the aim of creating a coordinated global campaign.
GMO Evidence of Harms (warning: pictures can be disturbing).