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February 12, 2003
New category for release of
new organisms
The government is proposing a new category for the release of
new organisms, including genetically-modified organisms (GMOs),
into New Zealand.
The new category is called "conditional release" and would be an
intermediate stage between new organisms in fully contained
conditions and organisms released without any conditions.
"Currently under the HSNO Act we have only containment of new
organisms or general release with no conditions. The proposed
new category of conditional release will allow New Zealand to
implement the findings of the Royal Commission on Genetic
Modification to proceed with caution while preserving
opportunities," the Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said.
The new category of conditional release would allow the
Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) to approve the
release of new organisms, but only under certain conditions.
"The Royal Commission recognised that the current system failed
to allow conditional release, " Marian Hobbs said.
As an example of the conditions that could be imposed, an
applicant might want to grow GM carrots that when processed into
possum bait produce infertility in possums. ERMA could impose
controls restricting the location and size of the crop, and
order that the carrots must not be allowed to flower so that
there was no chance of the GM carrot pollen being carried to a
non-GM carrot crop. This would allow applicants to grow the GM
carrots to help reduce the possum population, while ensuring
that they did not enter the human food supply.
In considering a new organism for conditional release, ERMA
would need to look at it in the context of a set of minimum
standards designed to protect our environmental health and
biodiversity.
"The range of uses is far wider than just GM crops and the
controls are not just to do with containment," the minister
said.
"For example, in the case of a live GM vaccine such as some
cholera vaccines, the controls could be that it be administered
only under medical guidance and not to people with suppressed
immune systems."
ERMA would also have the power to review its conditional release
approvals where new information or new technologies justified a
change in the conditions of that approval.
The Minister says the framework for conditional release requires
an effective enforcement regime and that role will be carried
out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). The
Ministry will be assigned new funding to allow it to carry out
its new role and estimates are being done now of the funding
required.
"An enormous amount of work has gone into thinking through the
framework for conditional release and I am very pleased with the
outcome," Marian Hobbs said.
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