Biopiracy threat as Multinational Giants Pitch GM to Maori Businesses
Te Waka Kai Ora (National Māori Organics Authority Aotearoa)
The upcoming conference titled “Adapting to a Changing World” run by GE multinationals Monsanto and DuPont has sparked
intense debate throughout Aotearoa and Māori communities. Te Waka Kai Ora (the National Māori Organics Authority
Aotearoa) takes a strong stand against Genetic Modification and the insidious campaigns by such multinationals to push
their agenda on indigenous communities. Te Waka Kai Ora act as the facilitators for Hua Parakore maara kai (pure food
growing), using a tikanga based verification system which encourages the use of GE-free, nano-free, pesticide and
chemical-free production methods, while enhancing their whanau and community aspirations.
Te Waka Kai Ora is clear that that GM is as serious threat to the health and integrity our whenua, our tikanga and the
lives of our mokopuna, and is angered at the Federation of Māori Authorities (FOMA) for accepting platinum sponsorship
to the conference. Dr Jessica Hutchings, from Ngai Tahu, a TWKO Hua Parakore grower, and lecturer in Environmental
Studies at Victoria University says “it is alarming that FOMA are introducing the multinational GM giants to Māori
communities and businesses. These corporations haven’t got past the use of pesticides or herbicides and have damaging
environmental records in other countries. GM is an outdated technology, it is not a pathway towards sustainable
agriculture or food security and many Māori communities, Hua Parakore farmers, and whānau have strongly opposed the use
of this technology in food and on the whenua (land).”
Another serious concern is that these ideas are being pitched to Māori growers under the guise of financial benefit, and
Māori are not being given the full story about the total ramifications of introducing GM and its impacts on the
whakapapa and genetic make-up of our food.
Dr Hutchings says that, “GM is about profit and is bound up in the western intellectual property regime that
misappropriates Māori and other indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Allowing these global GM giants an
opportunity to pitch their unsafe, unsustainable and profit-driven technologies to Māori is immoral. FOMA should be
looking towards introducing Māori businesses and communities to safer and more acceptable greener technologies that do
not put people, the environment or our tikanga at risk”. Te Waka Kai Ora will continue to oppose all forms of Genetic
Modification in our food system and the environment, and urges FOMA and Māori growers to act as kaitiaki and protect our
seed and whenua for future generations by rejecting these damaging technologies.
ENDS