www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

Biotechnologist Dr Elvira Dommisse, who worked on the early stages of Crop
and Food's GE onion experiments before the current field trials began, says
GE crops have not lived up to their initial promise and the Crown research
institute should invest more in conventional plant breeding by Paul Gorman .

The institute's application to carry out a 10-year Lincoln field trial of
broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and forage kale genetically engineered to
contain a natural pesticide to kill caterpillars was heard by the
Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) in Christchurch last week.

Dommisse worked for the old Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
and then Crop and Food from 1985 to 1993. She left because she found the
work unrewarding and could not see it solving the problems people said it
would.

She was critical of the "lack of precaution and lack of thinking" in Crop
and Food's application to Erma, and said scientists working in the GE area
were under pressure to develop lines that would become commercially viable.

Some scientists were not keen on GE work but were afraid to talk out about
it for fear of losing funding on which jobs depended.

"New Zealand has invested quite heavily in it. As a scientist, once you
narrow down into GE your skills are very much in that area. You can't just
say, `I don't like this area any more, I'll zip over to plant breeding
instead'.

"You have to try to push it ? `we have got this GE stuff, what are we going
to do with it now? We have to keep getting our salaries for the next 10
years, get funding that will keep this project going'.

"If you can get a 10-year bloc of funding, you are home and hosed," Dommisse
said.

She doubted the field trial would be a useful exercise if it were approved.
Most people ate broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower for health benefits and
would be unimpressed by GE brassicas.

By the time the 10-year trial ended, that would mark 30 years since the
experiment began.

"They could have been spending that time and money to develop new commercial
lines. What they could do instead is put a bit more money into conventional
brassica breeding, using hand pollination and selection to look for good
traits without tweaking the genes."

Scientists were "theoretical people, not growers", she said.

"They have done this under very strict conditions in the glasshouse but not
in the field. You can't just transfer that to the fields, it's completely
different."

On the last day of the Erma hearing on Friday, Crop and Food project leader
Dr Mary Christey admitted there were no cast-iron guarantees all the GE
material could be contained on the site.

"I don't think you can give an absolute to anything, but we would have a
high level of probability of detecting things," she told the hearing.

Christey said she would not engage in any research that would compromise the
environment her children inherited.

"I'm interested in ensuring the environment is preserved for them. I
wouldn't engage in this research if I didn't think it wouldn't be damaging
the environment.

"At the same time, I can see GE plants growing overseas and I can see the
benefits that can accrue."

BioAg New Zealand founder Phyllis Tichinin said if the trial went ahead it
was important for New Zealand's "social cohesion" that it was scientifically
robust and advanced the country's international "scientific mana".

[www.stuff.co.nz]