Alliance Bill Would Stop New Zealand's Food Industry In Its Tracks

"The ill conceived Bunkle Bill could close down some of New Zealand's key food industries," said Minister for Food and Fibre, John Luxton today.

The Bill shows that the Alliance Party does not seem to know what genetic engineering is.

The Bill, in its current form, with their definition of genetic engineering could prevent:

sales of butter (genetic material has been removed by separating the cream off)
sales of bread and bakery products (genetic material such as yeast has been added) and
sales of meat, fish or processed vegetables (processing has removed genetic material).

The Alliance has to tell New Zealanders why it is trying to mislead New Zealanders about the current very exhaustive protections afforded New Zealand consumers and the New Zealand environment by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), the Hazardous Substances and Noxious Organisms Act (HASNO) legislation and the Australian New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA).

A moratorium as proposed by the Alliance Bill would imperil the future of New Zealand's key rural economy by letting other countries get further ahead of New Zealand in important biotechnology research," said Mr Luxton

It would also severely damage medical research in New Zealand where such research is just beginning to make major breakthroughs in new disease prevention and cures using similar genetic engineered products such as insulin.