Aotearoa/New
Zealand: Scion's GE trees cut down!
Since 2003, New Zealand's Scion has
been carrying out a field trial planting of genetically engineered
(GE) Radiata pine and Norway spruce trees at its research facilities
in Rotorua. The GE trees contain reporter genes, herbicide resistance
genes and genes which according to Scion are "thought to
affect floral development". The trial is planned to last
22 years, although none of the trees will be left in the ground
for more than 10 years.
In January 2008, someone got into Scion's
GE tree experiment site by digging under the fence. They damaged
19 trees but no one seems to know whether any parts of the GE
trees were removed. The protester (or protesters) left a spade
with a "GE Free New Zealand" sticker on it.
The Soil and Health Association, a New
Zealand NGO founded in 1941, has been campaigning for the GE tree
trial to be stopped and the trees to be removed. Shortly before
the trees were damaged, the Soil and Health Association put out
a press release saying that Scion should take down its GE trees,
pointing out that rabbits have burrowed under the fence surrounding
the trial, creating the risk that GE plant material has been removed
from the trial area.
Scion acknowledges that there are rabbits
inside the GE tree trial site, but argues that the rabbits cannot
leave the site because the fence is buried to a depth of 1.5 metres.
Scion does not explain how the rabbits might have got inside the
fence in the first place. Steffan Browning of the Soil and Health
Association visited Scion's GE tree field test site in November
2007. He found evidence of rabbits inside and outside the trial
site. He took photographs of "an obvious hole in and under
the fence, which had clearly been there for some time."
In order to comply with Environmental
Risk Management Authority (ERMA) requirements, Scion is supposed
to carry out a weekly inspection of the fence. Scion's 2007 report
to ERMA makes no mention of rabbits.
In a press release, Claire Bleakley
of GE Free New Zealand says, "Each year GE Free (NZ) raises
concerns over issues pertaining to compliance and we are always
fobbed off. We must hope that no GE material was taken from the
facility. Responsibility for this negligence and the carelessness
leading to the breach should lie in part, with the inspection
and monitoring agencies."
Browning notes that "ERMA has never
declined an application for a GE field trial." He points
out that there is a conflict of interest, in that "some ERMA
decision makers [are] employed by other GE experimenting CRIs
[Crown Research Institutions]".
New Zealand's Greens are not surprised
that the GE trial should attract this sort of protest. "It's
a bit like streakers at the one day cricket," states a post
on the Greens' blog. Browning points out that the Soil and Health
Association does not condone illegal acts, but, he told Radio
New Zealand, "I struggle to disagree with the motives of
whoever has done whatever it is. It does depend on what they've
actually done and how responsible they've been with any material."
Scientists are outraged, reports the
New Zealand Press Association. "The deliberate destruction
of genetically modified trees at Scion is eco-terrorism and destroys
knowledge and opportunity for all New Zealanders," says Dr
William Rolleston, chairman of the Life Sciences Network, a pro-GE
lobby group. Scion is a member of the Life Sciences Network.
In a 2002 article in the New Zealand
Forest Industries magazine, Christian Walter, a senior scientist
at Scion, explains the organisation's justification for its GE
tree experiment: "We must gain a thorough understanding of
the potential risks associated with GE in forestry and how they
can be mitigated, before any commercialization can possibly take
place. This inevitably involves field testing."
Elspeth MacRae, Scion's Group Manager
for Biomaterials Research says that "The express purpose
of this trial is to assess the impacts, if any, of transgenic
trees on the environment. Results to date show that soil microbial
populations and insect biodiversity in a GE tree pine field test
is unaffected." But the trial consists of only a few dozen
trees. Clearly the environmental impact of industrial tree plantations
of GE pine trees would be a completely different and even more
dangerous experiment. As Felicity Perry of the People's Moratorium
Enforcement Agency points out, field trials of GE trees are like
"starting a bushfire to find out how badly it burns".
Scion has signed a research agreement
with GE tree research company ArborGen, owned by International
Paper, MeadWestvaco and Rubicon. Scion is conducting laboratory
research aimed at producing GE trees which
are easier to pulp. "As part of our commercial activities,
Scion is providing research and development services to assist
ArborGen with their tree improvement programme," MacRae says.
"We can confirm that our service to ArborGen supports their
research into GE trees."
Scion's GE trees are not welcome in
New Zealand. "The destruction of the GE trees in Rotorua
highlights the resistance to genetic engineering in Aotearoa/New
Zealand. Because ERMA is not stopping GE material from being released
into the environment, the people of Aotearoa have to intervene,"
says Felicity Perry of the People's Moratorium Enforcement Agency.
"Overwhelmingly the population of Aotearoa wants this country
to be GE Free."
By Chris Lang, http://chrislang.org
