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NZ uproar over banishing GM trees
Posted: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 3:38 pm
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Organic advocates in New Zealand are reacting with shock and horror at the prospect of GM trees. Not that the trees will overshadow their cabbage-patches, but that the trees will be sent out of the country and grown in the US. You'd think they'd welcome this banishment, but they don't. You figure it out.

Soil &Health Association of New Zealand, which makes noises like an NGO, and is shrill enough to rate a comparison with the UK's Soiled Association, does not supply organic certification services. Its real business is selling magazines and getting donations. Which means, peddling shock and horror.

The 'association', which is actually the result of decades of mergers and acquisitions, is circulating a press release which claims that a looming event will "shred New Zealand's clean, green brand and risk large-scale health and environmental damage".

The event: sending GM trees out of the country.

The press release alleges:
ArborGen, the (GE) tree research and development giant, which is one third owned by New Zealand company Rubicon (formerly Fletcher Challenge Forestry), is trying to plant 260,000 GE cold tolerant eucalyptus trees in 29 so called "field trials" in 7 different US states. These trees will be able to flower and set seed, and while not permitted to be field trialled in New Zealand have been developed in and exported from New Zealand. They are derived from the hybrid of Eucalyptus grandis X Eucalyptus urophylla.
"Such plantings would not be accepted by New Zealanders, but big New Zealand business combined with proven sloppy Scion scientists are prepared to take big risks globally," said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning. "Scion and Rubicon's involvement with large-scale GE brings shame to New Zealand's clean, green GE-free reputation."

This group manqué clearly does not understand that the US actually welcomes innovation, with nearly 100 percent of its commodity crops being genetically modified. Nor that the US is perfectly happy to adopt technologies developed in a country with agricultural policies so benighted that it qualifies for third-world status.

Oddly, the "Soil &Health Association of New Zealand" appears to argue that its island nation is a place where GM plants must be kept. "The government must stop the export of genetically engineered plants, animals and products from New Zealand", the 'association' says.

Does the 'association' really mean what it says? That's an irrelevant question. The fact is, New Zealand is driving out agricultural innovation, to take root elsewhere. The US is a common destination for the refugees of persecuted science. If other countries voluntarily impoverish themselves in the process, that is their business.
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GMO (noun) 1. An acronym for the term, 'Genetically Modified Organism'. 2. A plant, animal or microbe with a genetic code which has been intentionally altered, such as through forced evolution (see selective breeding); through random mutations induced with radiation or chemicals (see mutagenesis); or through the selective transfer, promoting or silencing of specific genes (see genetic engineering). 3. Most generally, any descendant of a primordial urbiote. (See evolution.)

obelus (noun) A dagger-shaped typographical symbol [ † ] which directs a reader's attention to important matters. From the Greek, obelus, literally, a roasting skewer.

GMObelus (noun, proper) A publication directing the attention of readers to the latest news and commentary regarding the development and use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture and related fields.

peer (noun) 1. One of two or more computers sending data to each other over the same network. 2. One of two or more persons sharing information with each other over such a network. (See also, 'remote peer'.)

peer review (noun phrase)  A process by which peers review information shared over a network, rather than each other. (Compare, argumentum ad hominem.)

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