GE-Free NZ fight to stop GE-Brassica trials

25-Jun-2007

Non-profit organisation GE-Free New Zealand have mounted a challenge against the Environment Risk Management Authority's approval of 10-years of field trials of genetically engineered brassicas in Canterbury. The organisation claims that ERMA's decision to approve the trials was seriously flawed and that such flaws cannot go unscrutinised.

ERMA received many submissions requesting that the application be declined due to economic and health concerns. "The lack of necessary research protocols and experimental procedures over the ten years of the trials means that little knowledge of value will come out of the field tests," said Claire Bleakley from GE free New Zealand. More details of the appeal can be read at GE free New Zealand's website.