Currently, New Zealand’s regulations - among the most stringent in the world - mean that GMOs cannot be released out of containment without going through a rigorous process.
The government says the purpose of the new bill, set to be in place by the end of the year, is to enable the safe use of gene technology and regulated organisms in New Zealand, while the intention is to establish a new regulatory regime for gene technology and GMOs .
Among the changes, low-risk gene editing techniques that produce changes indistinguishable from traditional breeding will be exempted from regulation and a new regulator of the industry will be appointed.
In his state of the nation speech this month, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said “enabling gene technology is about backing farmers. It is about embracing growth. It is about saying ‘yes’, instead of ‘no’.”
GMOs are the solution to many of our current problems, ie drought resistant crops, biofortification of nutrients, pest control. Most GMO laws are extremely outdated and do not consider current technologies and the fact we can safely perform on-target gene editing.
Many modern plants we eat have been exposed to mutagens to generate modern variants, which is a completely random process and technically has a higher chance of producing dangerous outcomes when compared to targeted GM, yet that’s been perfectly legal for decades.
Time to update. Good job NZ
GMOs are great and I’m tired of idiots being terrified of movies.
GMO is an incredibly broad term and can be both good and bad. And as such requires specific regulations and discussions and not just “gmo bad! No, GMO good!”