Dan Elderkamp: GMO question important issue

Dan Elderkamp.

Regarding Hastings District Council's ruling to stay GMO-free, I fully agree with their stance, for reasons which have already been widely circulated - a no-brainer, really.

I find it really hard to understand Federated Farmers' decision to challenge this in court, and together with their support of the TPPA and the RWSS, it has now become crystal clear that they have lost their moral compass, and are quite prepared to sell New Zealand Inc down the river, economically and environmentally, in favour of their members' financial gain, regardless of the irreversible economic harm it will cause long-term.

Let's not be ignorant of the facts - the TPPA is, in reality, the back door by which this National Government and Federated Farmers will allow and encourage GMO foods to enter and be grown in NZ. In this guise, the TPPA is the nuclear-armed ship of New Zealand agriculture.

A huge number of Kiwis will remember the international fracas caused by our refusing entry to US nuclear-armed or powered ships - this has cost NZ billions in trade restrictions since, but there will be very few who will argue that this cost wasn't worth us staying nuclear-free.

In many ways this enhanced our clean, green image to the world, which would have compensated for our trade losses to some degree.

As Kiwis, we must all take very serious note that once the GMO Genie is out of the bottle, it will be impossible to get it back in - it is an irreversible and irrevocable decision. The economic implications of this will be too ghastly to contemplate, and I call on all New Zealanders to resist the TPPA with all they have.

As we protested the nuclear ship issue, we should do likewise for the TPPA and GMO foods. The economic advantages of the TPPA will add less than 1 per cent to GDP by 2030, and in my view this price is more than worth paying. This will be offset by the fact that our GMO-free foods and reputation will more than make up for this "cost", and will be far better for all of New Zealand in the long run.

I feel that the GMO question is a hugely important national issue, which should be decided by a binding referendum. And other than the frivolous flag debate, I think this would be a referendum big and important enough to spend $26 million on, considering the effect it will have on our nation's future.

- Dan Elderkamp is co-chairman, Forest & Bird Central Hawke's Bay branch.

- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz