13 July 2002

GE CONTAMINATION NOT RULED OUT

EXCERPTS:

"For three days we've had (Science Minister) Pete Hodgson waving his test results ... he now seems to be saying that there's no extra evidence from the Government, which is quite staggering. The decision was made on the evidence which I reproduced in my book, which for between two and three weeks was regarded as definite contamination, which required pulling out the crops." - Nicky Hager, author of Seeds of Distrust

"Environment Minister Marian Hobbs and Prime Minister Helen Clark have both stated there was "no contamination". Seeds would have been destroyed and crops pulled up if there was any doubt as to whether they were GE-contaminated, Ms Hobbs has said." - Dominion Post

"The decision about what action to take, followed "a lot of discussion and consideration", Dr Walker said."  - Dominion Post

[As Hager has documented, Novartis's PR company and other industry players were intimately involved in that process.]

"Papers on the affair, promised by Ms Hobbs yesterday morning did not arrive until 7.42pm, after evening television deadlines had been passed.  A Friday night dump of papers is commonly seen as a government tactic to obscure politically sensitive material." - Dominion Post

***

GE contamination not ruled out - Erma

Dominion Post, SATURDAY 13 JULY 2002
 
 Confusion over the genetically engineered (GE) corn issue continued yesterday, when it emerged that the scientific tests ordered by the Government did not completely rule out GE contamination.

Officials then decided that the Government would not be reasonably justified in calling for destruction of the crop and the remaining seed, Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) chief executive Bas Walker said tonight.

"The conclusion we reached was that based on all the information available, we could not conclude that there was a reasonable case for requiring the crop to be pulled up," he said. "At no stage have we said, categorically, that there was no contamination."

Environment Minister Marian Hobbs and Prime Minister Helen Clark have both stated there was "no contamination". Seeds would have been destroyed and crops pulled up if there was any doubt as to whether they were GE-contaminated, Ms Hobbs has said.

A spokesman for Ms Hobbs said last night he could not immediately respond to what Dr Walker had said. Erma's science manager, Dr Donald Hannah, concluded that the overall level of contamination in the seed batch was about 0.04 percent. This would have been equivalent to 15,000 seeds containing altered DNA.

Dr Hannah found that some tests were positive, indicating the possibility there was GE contamination. But crops already planted using seed from the same shipment, which came in from the United States, were not pulled up, and an Environment Ministry official said yesterday that corn was never tested.

Nicky Hager, who revealed the GE scare in his book Seeds of Distrust, said what Dr Walker had said was "quite staggering". Hager has been under attack from the Government as it sought to dampen down fears GE crops had been planted in Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Marlborough.

Hager said he was "gobsmacked" by what Dr Walker had said. "For three days we've had (Science Minister) Pete Hodgson waving his test results ... he now seems to be saying that there's no extra evidence from the Government, which is quite staggering," he said.

"The decision was made on the evidence which I reproduced in my book, which for between two and three weeks was regarded as definite contamination, which required pulling out the crops. "(Dr Walker) is now saying that they then re-thought it."

The decision about what action to take, followed "a lot of discussion and consideration", Dr Walker said. "We were not reasonably justified in calling for the destruction of the crop and the seed."

Dr Walker said the tests did not prove contamination. They had to be looked at "in their totality". Results showed positive and negative, and none of those positives were absolutely clear.

He did not accept that the decision to leave seeds in the ground was a political one made after the scientific analysis. "I disagree with that. We certainly worked off the basis of that analysis, but we had to decide what interpretation to place on it, and therefore what position we should take as a result."

That interpretation was destruction of the crop and the seed could not be justified, Dr Walker said. Papers on the affair, promised by Ms Hobbs yesterday morning did not arrive until 7.42pm, after evening television deadlines had been passed.

A Friday night dump of papers is commonly seen as a government tactic to obscure politically sensitive material. It could be regarded as the equivalent of TV3 "ambushing" an unprepared Miss Clark on the issue, something she called "reprehensible".

Hager said the Government was trying to confuse the public. "I'm slightly gobsmacked that they made so many promises and came up with so little."

Environment Ministry chief executive Barry Carbon yesterday said that if GE corn had been planted, the level of contamination was low. So low in fact "that you'd have a high degree of confidence in saying it was not contaminated", he said.

Mr Carbon's view was that could have come about by "good management or good luck". He said information presented by Mr Hager was factual, but he disputed conclusions drawn from it.

Source: Dominion Post 13 JULY 2002