Opposition to 'terminator' gene seed

Rural Women New Zealand are urging the Government to drop its support for terminator gene seed trials.

Last year New Zealand supported Canada's call to lift the moratorium on field trials. "Terminator technology" makes seed or pollen sterile after the first generation. The issue has arisen again at a Convention on Biological Diversity currently in Brazil.

Sherril Dackers, the national president of Rural Women New Zealand, says up to 80 per cent of farmers in third world countries are women, many of whom save seed each season for next year's crop.

She says because they cannot afford to buy new seed every year, it would be disastrous if the terminator gene were to be accidentally or deliberately released near their crops.

Ms Dackers says the moratorium must stay to protect those farmers and safeguard New Zealand's biosecurity.

- NEWSTALK ZB