6/4/2026 Has New Zealand dodged the GE bullet?

The rising cost of pesticides and fertilisers made from fossil fuels is endangering the whole system underpinning commercial genetically engineered crops.

Whilst New Zealand has not adopted GE crops, some other countries have done so, with the two main genetically modified crops being either resistant to herbicides or are engineered to produce insecticides.

Farmers who have been made reliant on patented GE seeds and synthetic inputs are now vulnerable to the breakdown in the supply chain.

"GE crops overseas are making farmers even more reliant on large corporations to survive, with all the negative implications that involves. New Zealand farmers must heed the warning as the government proposes release of GMOs,"said Jon Carapiet, spokesman for GE-free NZ. Some of the world's staple foods, soy, maize, sugar beet, canola, potatoes and wheat have been engineered to be resistant to a cocktail of proprietary herbicides. These have been shown to be detrimental for health.[1]

There is now an admission that after only 20 years in the field, these patented transgenic varieties are failing to stop the weeds and insect pests they were designed to address, and have even made things worse. There are now over 40 resistant weeds to the different herbicides, roundup, glufosinate ammonium, dicamba, 2,4-T.

This failure has led to the biotechnology industry hyping gene editing as a different type of genetic engineering that is safer and more efficient. Genes of interest are removed or “knocked out” and can have a synthetic genes created by AI, or another gene, inserted at the break point. However, Gene Editing is now recognised to cause serious down stream off--target effects.

Even the simplest removal of one gene causes damage to the DNA functions that may have nothing to do with the intended cut. This Easter we can thank the many New Zealanders from across the community who raised their concerns about The Gene Technology Bill which would have allowed 'simple edits' to be exempted from regulation and released without labelling, risk assessment or any oversight. [2]

There is now strong public awareness that allowing GE release and contamination would be economic sabotage and would threaten New Zealand's exports of safe food that people at home and around the world are seeking.

As everything grown in New Zealand is GE Free, our food system leads the world in quality and demand.

References:

[1]https://ijdrug.com/Article/ijdrc-3048

[2] Repair of DNA double-strand breaks leaves heritable impairment to genome function https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk6662

ENDS

Jon Carapiet - spokesman 0210507681

Claire Bleakley - president 027 348 6731