Flawed Greenpeace Chinese study no reason for moratorium
“Expert analysis of the Greenpeace funded study of GM cotton in China, which has been touted as a reason for New
Zealand extending its moratorium on the commercial release of GE, shows the interpretation of the study is seriously
flawed,” the Chairman of the Life Sciences Network, Dr William Rolleston, said today.
“A call from GE-Free activists for the New Zealand Government to take a moral position as a result are misguided.
“The Greenpeace-funded study by the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences is to be reviewed by the Chinese Academy
of Sciences.
“Scientists who have already examined the study have scoffed at the claim it discloses significant environmental impacts
from GM cotton.
“This is yet another example, in the hothouse climate created by the Green Party’s decision to make GE a key election
issue, of the rush to negative judgement by the opponents of gene technology.
“They will seize on, and inflate enormously, any skerrick of information which seems to support their cause. By
continually drumming up a false fear the activists will lose credibility as the public tires of their extremism,”
concluded Dr Rolleston.
ENDS