A scientist who knows his maize and has the PM's ear

By CATHERINE MASTERS

If you want to know about maize Allan Hardacre is one of those rare people who can tell you. In fact, if you get him going he is quite hard to stop.

He is also the Prime Minister's brother-in-law and it is this fact that has meant both Mr Hardacre and Helen Clark have had some explaining to do at the Corngate inquiry.

The Prime Minister had called her younger sister Suzanne's husband around the time of the possible GM contamination of corn in Gisborne in late 2000 and he gave her advice on what should be done.

Mr Hardacre says it figures she might ask because aside from the family ties he also happens to be a Crop and Food Research scientist specialising in maize. When the pair talk, which naturally enough has been many times over their 30-year relationship, maize often comes up.

"I talk about maize all the time actually. It probably comes up in passing probably every second time she rings us up I would imagine."

He is consulted by companies and has spoken about maize at international conferences: "There's nobody else really to get advice from [in New Zealand]."

He and Suzanne have four daughters, one of whom is also a scientist. He met his wife when she was doing a bachelor of science degree and he was doing a science masters degree at Auckland University.

The families spend Christmases together and he has tramped the Heaphy Track with Helen Clark, who has been "marvellous" to him and Suzanne's four daughters.

"She's been the absolute epitome of an aunt actually, she's been extremely supportive of the family all the way through in practical terms as well as emotional terms."

Mr Hardacre is not a geneticist, he is a plant breeder, and the maize programme he was working on at Crop and Food Research has recently wound up - because of cutbacks in Government funding. The programme he ran looked at cool tolerance in maize, through conventional breeding methods, using material from high altitudes from Mexico and Peru. He brought genes over that were associated with the ability of the plant to survive in the cool, temperate New Zealand climate looking to give the crop a kick-start and perhaps make it mature a little faster.

In the broader sense this is genetic modification but it did not involve transferring genes from different species, it was natural breeding that has been going on for thousands of years.

In New Zealand maize plays an important role. It is the third largest crop behind barley and wheat.

"It goes primarily into the poultry industry, about 70 per cent, your cornflakes, cheeseballs, monster munchers, all that snack food type stuff and of course all your corn chips and tortillas."

It is also used in the "stuff that sticks muesli bars together", it is in baking syrups, biscuit flour, it can be turned into sugars, it is even in bourbon.

Graeme Coles, research leader for the food and biomaterials innovation team at Crop and Field Research, vouches for his colleague's expertise.

"He's got a very long history of involvement in the development of new maize varieties and he sure knows a great deal about that and the way you use maize in foods and feeds and so forth. He knows what he's talking about."