Govt baulks at leaving accidentally-imported GE seed in ground

The Government has hesitated over the most controversial recommendation from the Corngate inquiry -- leaving some genetically engineered (GE) plants to grow if accidentally-contaminated seeds slip through the nation's borders and are planted.

Parliament's environment select committee agreed unanimously in October on 10 recommendations, including the "safe ground" idea of leaving some GE-contaminated seed to grow.

The unanimous agreement was seen as a concession on the part of the Green Party, whose co-chairwoman Jeanette Fitzsimons led the select committee inquiry.

But today the Government announced its response to the select committee report, accepting only nine of the recommendations.

"The tenth recommendation has merit, but requires further consideration because of the complexity of issues it raises," Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said in a statement.

"It attempts to address a real problem pragmatically, and has considerable merit, but at the same time raises a number of complex issues," she said.

The select committee which inquired into the accidental contamination of imported sweetcorn seed in 2000 -- known as "Corngate" -- split along party lines over whether Government officials subsequently sought a level of "tolerance" for accidental contamination, with some MPs arguing the seed might not have been contaminated.

At the time, Ms Fitzsimons said all the select committee members, except those in the National Party, believed New Zealand should continue to have zero tolerance for GE contamination in testing of imported seed at the border.

"But all 12 of us signed up to a recommendation to make zero tolerance workable," she said.

The committee recommended that once a batch of seed had correctly been through the testing protocol and planted, if a subsequent test showed that a tiny amount of GE seed had crept through then it should be allowed to continue growing, and to be sold.

But the safe-ground approach -- leaving corn growing when it is belatedly discovered to be contaminated, and available for sale -- should on be available to recognised food varieties and not to non-edible cultivars or cultivars engineered for pharmaceutical or industrial use.

Also, she and United Future MP Larry Baldock had added a rider saying that where GE corn was allowed to grow after belated discovery of contamination, farmers should not be allowed to replant seed saved from it, without it being re-tested.

Today, Ms Fitzsimons said the Government's response to the select committee recommendation was a "fudged response", because on the nine recommendations it did accept it made no commitment to action.

"It's disappointing," she told NZPA. "It pretends to accept recommendations, but nothing's going to change as a result.

"It pretends that everything is world's best practice and there is nothing further to do."

She was particularly concerned that the Government had only agreed in principle to a recommendation that regulators have access to all laboratory data from testing, and had argued that some commercially sensitive information would not be essential. The Government also said that access to raw laboratory data was not necessary for border control purposes.

The recommendations with which the Government says it agrees, or agrees "in principle" are:

* When new laws or new risks arise, officials should sort out protocols and responsibilities to cover all of them. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) and the Environment Ministry should co-operate on GE biosecurity. But the Government said today that it would be impractical to develop responses to all foreseeable compliance breaches. Also it would be better to develop general processes for dealing with compliance breaches. MAF and Erma would continue to "regularly review" the use of controls that could be placed on new organisms.

* MAF and Erma should have best-practice systems to manage scientific risk assessment, risk to their reputations and commercial trade risk. The Government agreed, but said they were already at best practice levels.

* Incident plans should include deadlines for decisions to give industry increased certainty. The Government said it had a well-tested policy for response to incursions, but so far each GE crop incident had been different, and sometimes a case-by-case approach was best.

* A formal process is needed to review commercialisation of GE cultivars overseas, and to develop mandatory testing protocols for any imports of those seeds. MAF keeps a watching brief on GE crop developments overseas and has three protocols on imports of corn, canola and soybean seeds. It is also now looking at measures for crookneck squash.

* Officials' consultation on implementation of laws should include a balanced range of stakeholders, rather than consulting stakeholders about the application of the law in an individual case. The Government agrees, but says in some instances it is appropriate for officials to discuss particular problems or possible courses of action with specific stakeholders.

* Government regulators should have access to all laboratory data from seed testing, without being constrained by confidentiality agreements. This was agreed in principle, but the Government said that while MAF required access to raw data for audits of accredited laboratories, "access to raw data is not necessary for border control purposes".

* Importers must not be able to report tests selectively. The Government agreed in principle.

* Government agencies should identify appropriate experts and set up systems for obtaining advice, such as in the management of unforeseen incidents. The Government says Erma already has a list of experts including a GE expert panel, and MAF used "appropriate domestic and international experts".

* Government officials should keep proper records of meetings, phone calls and actions such as collecting of field samples. The Government says since the 2000 Corngate incident, record-keeping and information-sharing between agencies has been greatly improved.

- NZPA