Shift to Natural Food as Children Go GE Free

Shift to Natural Food as Children Go GE Free

World's biggest food fair signals market shift to natural food as children join in opposition to GM contamination.

The Labour weekend balloon- release commemorating 12 months to the end of the government's moratorium on GE releases -was completed today when hundreds of children in Pukekohe held the last of 28 events nationwide.

The event aimed at protecting the future for New Zealand's production of GE-Free foods comes at the same time as the market trend to natural foods is being signalled at the world's'largest food fair being held in Paris.

A report by news-agency Reuters carried in The NZ Herald (Weekend Business pC5 26/7 October) confirms the trend to natural, healthy products in overseas markets. The report backs up warnings that GE release threatens to destabilise New Zealand's economy that benefits to the tune of billions of dollars from our positioning as an exporter of clean- green -natural produce.

Today's Pukekohe release, together with events in Waitahanui and Christchurch , will mark the end of the events symbolising the spread of GE pollen which has occurred overseas and which will threaten the survival of GE-Free agriculture if allowed in Aotearoa New Zealand.

There is growing scientific evidence that environmental release of GE will contaminate non-GE agriculture, but that these unmanageable risks are being ignored by the government under pressure from the Life Sciences industry. There are plans to allow "Conditional release" of GE organisms proposed in a discussion document from the Ministry for the Environment, but experience has already shown buffer-zones and other controls cannot prevent contamination.

The GE-push from our government will be a disaster if it doesn't incorporate ethical and cultural considerations and preserves the biggest opportunity for New Zealand- which is GE-Free production.

Liability for risking - (and in all likelihood destroying) -the GE-Free opportunity must rest with those corporations demanding GE release.

Prevention is the only option to prevent seepage into the mainstream food supply. Once again the Public urge the Government to "preserve our GE-Free opportunities."

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