Taskforce tries to weed out GM ethical views

By SIMON COLLINS, science reporter

A biotechnology industry taskforce wants to tighten the rules for submissions on genetically modified organisms to exclude broad ethical issues.

The Government-appointed taskforce recommended yesterday that submitters should be bound by semi-judicial rules of evidence that would force them to support their statements with "relevant authority".

Taskforce head Bill Falconer, who chairs the industry group Biotenz, said the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) should concentrate on "the science of the applications", leaving ethical and cultural issues to the new Bioethics Council.

The change would have saved Crown-owned AgResearch "hundreds of thousands of dollars" when it applied last year to modify cows.

Limiting submissions "is something they can do without in any way circumscribing people's rights to be heard", he said.

But the proposal ran into immediate opposition from GE-Free NZ president Claire Bleakley.

"Science is only a very small part of these issues, and often it's not right - they are always changing their theories," she said.

"The Bioethics Council is not a decision-making council. It can only make recommendations."

A spokesman for Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said amended GM legislation introduced in Parliament last night retained the right to make submissions to Erma on ethical aspects. "She has always said the Bioethics Council would not consider individual applications."

But the bill does allow the minister to "call in" an application that raises ethical or cultural issues outside Erma's area of expertise. In such cases, the minister may appoint experts to sit with Erma to hear submissions, and then make the final decision herself.

The taskforce also recommends boosting Government spending on biotechnology research from $134 million annually to $300 million within five years, and a new $200 million joint public/private investment fund.