Genetics campaigner celebrates research court ruling

A Featherston genetics campaigner hasn't stopped grinning since leading and winning a precedent-setting case against AgResearch and the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA).
Claire Bleakley, president of GE Free NZ in food and environment, said a powerful shot was fired against "shoddy science" when the High Court on Friday upheld her group's appeal against applications relating to genetic engineering projects.
Last October, GE Free NZ went to the High Court to appeal a decision by ERMA NZ to notify four applications submitted by AgResearch that ranged from importing genetically-engineered embryo's created overseas, to field trialing and commercial production of pharmaceuticals in milk and development of animals to model disease, Mrs Bleakley said.
After 12 weeks of deliberation, the court found that ERMA erred in receiving the applications from AgResearch and declared them invalid.
The decision instructs ERMA to immediately halt processing the applications made by AgResearch, which sought the right to modify nine species of animals, for an unlimited period, for commercial ventures anywhere in New Zealand.
"It is fantastic news that our concerns about the broad and indefinite nature of these applications have been upheld," she said.
"The cruelty and unregulated exploitation of animals for unsound GM research is not acceptable to New Zealanders."
Her fellow GE Free NZ campaigner Jon Carapiet said the applications were "not the 'case by case' regulation of ethical research that government promised the public, following the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, but a wholesale rush to commercialisation that would likely devastate New Zealand's export and tourism image.
"There is an urgent need for Government to direct Crown Research Institutes, like AgResearch, to comply with a Biotechnology Strategy that does not include genetic modification, but one that builds on our existing reputation and supports clean, natural and sustainable production.
"In developing the country's approach to gene technology, it is vital we learn from the history of mad cow disease, foot and mouth, swine flu, animal deformity through cloning, the failure and bankruptcy of previous GE-animal commercial ventures, and the public distaste for extreme animal cruelty."
The ruling wasn't the first court triumph for Mrs Bleakley, who in 2001 successfully appealed a decision by ERMA that allowed AgResearch to carry out experiments that involved putting a copy of a human gene into a cow.
"This is a precedent-setting case and an amazing win for the public of New Zealand that protects our farmers and exporters," she said.
"We would like to thank all who supported and helped us in the process of the case."