Soil now blamed for GM scare

By ANGELA GREGORY and FRANCESCA MOLD

Sweetcorn seeds that sparked the genetic modification scare may have been contaminated by nothing more than soil from a Gisborne farm.

Crop & Food Research yesterday revealed what a genetic scientist calls "the missing piece of the puzzle" to explain an apparent false positive result after the seed was tested for any GM contamination.

The scandal that has threatened to overwhelm the election campaign erupted after Wednesday's publication of the book Seeds of Distrust, by environmentalist Nicky Hager.

The book alleges that a ministerial cover-up allowed accidentally distributed GM-contaminated seeds to be grown, harvested, processed, and exported or eaten.

The Government sought to distance itself yesterday by wheeling in several top officials to take over the debate. The senior Wellington bureaucrats were instructed to answer all inquiries.

Also yesterday, the Prime Minister let fly against TV3 news presenter John Campbell, saying she was being told to "take the little creep on".

She has accused TV3 of an ambush over its Wednesday night GM programme. Campbell said last night that the show was "legitimate journalism".

In a new revelation, the Herald learned yesterday that a bag of soiled corn seeds returned by a Gisborne farmer seeking a refund might be behind the GM scare.

Farmers are entitled to return the expensive seed for a refund if they initially buy more than they need, and often do so.

Two years ago Cedenco - one of the companies that imported the 5.6-tonne shipment of the seed in question - wanted to sell its leftover seed to Japan and submitted several batches to Crop & Food Research to test as standard procedure.

It was in this testing process, completed on November 2, 2000, that the problem of potential contamination was revealed, prompting Cedenco to alert the Government.

Fearing that it was dealing with GM contamination, the Government initiated further tests, which came back inconclusive.

On that basis, the Government decided that the seeds already distributed by the importing companies could stay in the ground.

Yesterday, Crop & Food Research communications manager Howard Bezar explained that the sample that tested positive was one of eight batches Cedenco submitted for testing in October 2000.

"Subsequently the origin of this sample was found to include a bag of seed which had been returned by a farmer. The seed had talcum powder added to it to make the seed flow better through the drill."

Mr Bezar said the presence of talcum powder indicated that the seed had been removed from the bag,"therefore introducing the opportunity for soil and soil bacteria to contaminate the sample".

"Contamination with soil and soil bacteria could account for the positive result."

Crop & Food Research is a Crown institute which researches and monitors the development of arable foods, seafood, animal feed and forestry.

But the explanation has not convinced Mr Hager. Reacting last night, he said the Government was in damage-control mode and in the past 48 hours had pushed forward every single voice it could find to "muddy the waters".

He agreed that theoretically seed exposed to soil on a Gisborne farm could account for the contamination. But that did not change the fact that in November 2000, when the Government thought it was dealing with a GM crisis, it chose not to subject the seeds to more tests but instead changed the rules to allow the seeds to stay.

Mr Hager said there were two sets of tests that threw up a positive result, but no further tests were completed to contradict those results.

University of Otago geneticist Dr Russell Poulter said last night that the explanation finally offered a reason for what he considered was a false positive result when Crop & Food Research tested the seed at Cedenco's request in October 2000.

Dr Poulter was brought in by Heinz Wattie in December 2000 to review the results of further sweetcorn seed tests at laboratories in NZ, Australia and the US which gave negative contamination results.

He said he was experienced in testing methods used to detect GM material, and there was no scientifically sound evidence indicating its presence.

The testing methods used were sensitive, and false positive results arose in even the best laboratories.

He had been puzzled that the positive test result had shown a genetic sequence with a terminator signal which was frequently found in transgenic corn, but had shown no sign of a promoter signal.

However, the genetic sequence with terminator signal was abundant in soil.

"This gives a piece of the puzzle which has been missing since December. In my opinion, on the basis of the evidence presented, there was no reason for the officials or the companies involved to conclude that there was even a reasonable possibility that the seed contained GM material."

Another plant scientist, Professor Richard Gardner of Auckland University, agreed that testing for genetically modified corn could easily throw up false results.

If a positive result was discovered and further tests gave negative results, it could be reasonably concluded that the seeds were not GM-contaminated.

A Cedenco representative said yesterday that the company had since ensured testing procedures were changed so samples were not taken from bags of returned seed.

At a special press conference in Wellington, Research, Science and Technology Minister Pete Hodgson said officials were under Government instructions to say whatever they wanted and to be as open as possible.

The officials, from the Ministry for the Environment and MAF, said initial tests on the November 2000 consignment of corn seed planted in Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and Blenheim raised serious concerns about possible contamination.

But later tests by independent laboratories in New Zealand and Australia raised strong doubts about the accuracy of the early results.

Environment Ministry chief executive Barry Carbon, who has been in the job for eight days, said he had a "very high degree of confidence" that there was no cover-up.

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