Waffle man
OPINION: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sometimes can't escape his own corporate instinct for evasion, and in what should have been a soft interview with ZB's Mike Hosking, Luxon unnecessarily "made a meal of it", to paraphrase Hosking.
He says New Zealand can both produce high quality food for a growing middle class around the world, while embracing genetic modification technology.
A report commissioned by Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) claims that primary sector exports could reduce by $10 billion to $20b annually were GMOs to be released into the environment.
"I disagree completely," Luxon told Rural News in Mystery Creek, Waikato where he met with around 400 farmers as part of Federated Farmers' Restoring Farmer Confidence Tour.
"As I have said before, the Indo Pacific region is growing significantly and there's huge demand for NZ food," says Luxon.
"We already feed 40 million people around the world and as people move out of poverty into the middle classes, they want high quality food. That's where we come in."
Luxon notes that GM-related technology, such as lower-emitting ryegrasses, are available in other parts of the world but not to NZ farmers.
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Hitting the sweet spot
"We are serious about delivering our climate change goals, which we will deliver through technology and through innovation. Also, we also don’t want to be at a disadvantage to other countries that we compete with.
“We have said we will look [at it] very conservatively, that we get a great regulator, put checks and balances in place and we manage it well.”
Luxon says the GM debate has moved on from where it was 25 years ago, pointing out that chief science advisors and the last two governments came out in support of what his government was doing.
During the meeting at Mystery Creek, Luxon was questioned about GM technology and how his government planned to handle it.
He told farmers that they were among the best in the world when it comes to producing high quality food. But he warned that the day the country stopped adopting new technology, farmers would lose their competitive edge.
“We as government are not going to make our farmers work with one hand tied behind their backs when it comes to new technology.”
But the OANZ report, by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), warns that the costs as well as potential benefits of deregulating gene technology need to be carefully considered in considering new regulations.
NZIER study authors Dr Bill Kaye- Blake and Thomas Hughes note that the government’s proposed regulatory changes, as outlined by information from the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), do not include a Regulatory Impact Statement, economic assessment or cost-benefit analysis.
The coalition Government has announced the effective ban on gene editing would be scrapped by the end of next year. A bill, based on Australia’s legislation, would be introduced to relax restrictions and set up a regulator.
The NZIER report concludes that “a discussion of gene technology in New Zealand should include all the economic actors affected and quantitative analysis to understand the impacts”.
“The quantitative analysis we have been able to conduct with limited time and resources suggests that the environmental release of GMOs in New Zealand could reduce exports from the primary sector by up to $10 billion to $20 billion annually,” says the report.
“NZIER understands that gene technology has potential benefits, as outlined by MBIE (2024). As professional economists, we also understand that there is no free lunch.
“Any assessment of the potential of gene technology should also account for possible costs. We hope this provides a first step in understanding these costs.”
