GE inquiry told of mistrust

By ANNE BESTON

Gene Facts

* Three weeks of formal hearings remain until Christmas.

* Two more hui and five workshops are left as part of the Maori consultation programme.

* Thirty witnesses testified this week.

* The commission must deliver its report by June.

Failure to tell people that they were eating genetically modified food has resulted in a high degree of mistrust and that attitude will be difficult to change, says a visiting consumer scientist.

Dr Lynn Frewer, a psychologist who heads the consumer science division of Britain's Institute for Food Research, gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification in Wellington.

She said New Zealanders' attitudes to GE foods were similar to those of people in Europe and Britain.

"Failure to label [GE foods] indicated the real risks were being hidden in order to promote a vested interest," Dr Frewer said. "The European public perceived that the benefits of genetically modified soya accrued to American producers and to industry, but the risks were experienced by European consumers."

Dr Frewer said both industry and the scientific community had to address the concerns people had about GE foods.

"Arguments that genetic modification will solve world hunger or solve other nutritional problems are unlikely to convince consumers of the merits of the technology unless concrete examples . . . are provided," she said.



Pressure groups that opposed GE also had to have their views taken into account, said Dr Frewer, "not least because they may act as a barometer of public opinion in the future."

Also before the commission this week, the Veterinary Association said it was worried that "obsessive concerns" about the risks of GM technology would be given more weight than the benefits the technology could bring.

The association, which represents 80 per cent of veterinarians, said the use of genetically modified vaccines for animals would mean less antibiotics fed to chickens and pigs, which in turn meant there would be less antibiotic residue in their meat.

Only one GE vaccine, against feline leukaemia Virus, was being used in New Zealand, but GE vaccines could be of huge benefit against animal diseases, the association said.

The commission must deliver its report by June next year.

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