Celebrities strike a pose against GM

By JOSIE CLARKE

A photographic collection of New Zealanders protesting against genetic modification will be used to put pressure on the Government as it decides what to do about the controversial issue.

Organiser Alannah Currie said the campaign had drawn together 85 celebrities, doctors, scientists, firefighters, drainlayers - "people who feel really strongly that they don't want genetically engineered crops".

Over the past month, celebrities including Rachel Hunter, Dave Dobbyn and Sam Neill have posed wearing T-shirts designed for the event by Karen Walker, Marilyn Sainty, Zambesi and World in protest against the royal commission report on genetic modification.

The collection includes New Zealanders now living in Sydney and London. Singer Bic Runga photographed actor Lucy Lawless and film director Jane Campion in Los Angeles.

"It's global. A lot of people are really worried about what's happening and they want to have their say," Alannah Currie said.

She hopes the collection, titled Up Against the Wall, will be exhibited in Auckland and Wellington at the end of next month to coincide with the Government's decisions about which of 49 recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification it will adopt.

"Hopefully, it will put pressure [on] the Government against taking the commission's recommendations to have field trials in New Zealand."

Many of those photographed are expected to march in today's Keep New Zealand GE-Free public rally. The march starts at Queen Elizabeth Square at noon and will run to Aotea Square, where members of the public will have an opportunity to address the rally.

Alannah Currie, a member of the 1980s British band the Thompson Twins, said she became interested in issues surrounding food technology, and later in submissions presented to the commission, after her sister died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Auckland last year.

She said she felt powerless after the release of the report, which paved the way for the controlled release of genetically modified organisms.

www.nzherald.co.nz/ge

Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification

GE lessons from Britain

GE links

GE glossary