Decision a win for GE-Free Northland
GE-Free Northland has welcomed the Environment Court’s decision that secured the right of local authorities to manage or ban the outdoor use of GMOs in their areas.
GE-Free Northland has fought a series of legal battles over genetic engineering/ genetically modified organism issues with Federated Farmers since 2014.
The decision also included precautionary GMO provisions and other wording in the Northland Regional Policy Statement.
That was a major victory for the Whangarei District Council and interested parties, including GE-Free Northland, Tai Tokerau mana whenua, Far North District Council and Soil & Health Association, GE-Free Northland chair Zelka Grammer said.
In this latest case, the Whangarei District Council had showed great leadership, appealing the Northland Regional Council’s Regional Policy Statement, she said. It had asked the NRC to delete one word — plants — so the policy would require a strong precautionary approach toward all outdoor use of GMOs, not just transgenic plants.
“The court’s decision is not only a victory for all Northlanders concerned about genetic engineering and the risks of outdoor use of GMOs, but vindication of the good work of local councils to create a much-needed additional tier of protection on top of what the Hazardous Substances and new Organisms (HSNO) Act requires,” Ms Grammer said.
“Local Government NZ, many councils, primary producer boards and local mana whenua have identified serious deficiencies in the HSNO Act, including inadequate liability provisions and no mandatory requirement for the EPA to take a precautionary approach to outdoor GE applications.
“Case law and the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 now protect the right of local councils to create enforceable GE-free Zones.”
Principal Environment Court Judge Newhook noted in his decision that “FFNZ’s argument was rather difficult to follow in logic . . . a series of nonsequiturs . . . and it is not open to Federated Farmers to run these arguments again, especially in view of the binding findings of the High Court”.
Despite the warning from Judge Newhook — who also made the unusual decision of allowing the defendant parties to apply for costs — FFNZ had yet to withdraw its various “vexatious” appeals against other councils working to protect their constituents and the environment from the risks of outdoor use of GMOs.
Those appeal cases included the Whangarei and Far North District councils’ collaborative GMO plan changes, precautionary and prohibitive GMO provisions in the Auckland unitary plan, and the outright ban of all outdoor use of GE/GMOs in the Hastings district plan.
Ms Grammer said GE-Free Northland was now asking the federation to withdraw those appeals.
“FFNZ should support their hard-working members in producing exports that add value to and protect New Zealand’s clean, green, GE-free image,” she said.
“FFNZ has not only wasted its own members’ hard-earned money and resources, but councils’ and ratepayers’ time and money as well.
“Outdoor use of geneticallymodified organisms, whether they be plants, animals or micro-organisms, presents unacceptable risks to existing GEfree primary producers and their valuable enterprises, our biosecurity and the wider environment,” she said.
Soil and Health Association chairman Graham Clarke said it had been shown worldwide that once GMOs got into the environment there was no way to effectively prevent their spread.
“All Northlanders should be grateful for the court’s decision, and for our team standing up for their democratic rights,” he said. “If GMOs were to be released into the environment they would be very difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate. There is also potential for serious economic loss to regions marketing their products and tourism under New Zealand’s ‘clean green’ brand if GMO releases were permitted.”
"Local Government NZ, many councils, primary producer boards and local mana whenua have identified serious deficiencies in the HSNO Act . . . "Zelka Grammer, GE-Free Northland chairwoman