Farmers -- Greens won’t even talk
The Green Party’s apparent unwillingness to even have a discussion on the potential of genetic engineering to provide solutions to some of the country’s most pressing environmental issues was extremely disappointing according to Federated Farmers spokesman Andrew Hoggard.
“Terse answers from Climate Change Minister James Shaw to Parliamentary questions this week indicate the Greens find the GE topic too hot to handle, but discussions on pragmatic and science-based policies should not be held to ransom by merely trying to keep a vocal section of your political party’s membership happy,” he said.
There had been “plenty” of media reports about a ryegrass developed by NZ AgResearch using gene editing, which could substantially reduce methane emissions from cattle, he added. Under current laws the grass could not be grown in New Zealand, however, and field trials were having to take place in the United States.
National’s climate change spokesman Todd Muller had asked Mr Shaw if he agreed with the former Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Sir Peter Gluckman, that New Zealand agriculture would struggle to be sustainable in the longterm without using gene editing.
Mr Shaw’s one-word reply was ‘No, the same reply he gave when asked if he agreed with Sir Peter that ‘… there is no way that we will get a reduction in methane production, and I can see no way that we will see an economic advantage for farmers as we shift to more plant-based foods, without using gene editing’,” Mr Hoggard said.
“Mr Shaw didn’t have to agree with Sir Peter Gluckman, but we do hope he won’t be so quick to shut down discussion of GE’s potential in talks with groups such as Federated Farmers and others.
“We’ve already had Green MP and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage tell Predator-Free NZ not to pursue the option of GE technologies as an answer to eradication of possums, rats and other pests.
“Farmers are being called on to make deep cuts in emissions from their livestock. Just about the only way were going to be able to do that, without crippling the viability of many farms, are breakthrough technologies that are still being worked on.
“Federated Farmers’ position is that we should at least be open to the potential of GE, and we need to continue scientific and field research on its advantages and disadvantages, at the same time as having an openminded and rational debate with all New Zealanders.” Prohibiting people from making stupid and historically inaccurate statements would spell the end of Parliament according to Act leader David Seymour.
That was what Justice Minister Andrew Little seemed to be suggesting in his response to a One Law for All pamphlet that had sparked a complaint in Auckland, not because it incited or threatened violence, was defamatory, or even a nuisance, all legitimate reasons to curtail speech, but because the Government needed the power to shut down speech.
“That is foolish,” Mr Seymour said.
“We live in a world where the Reserve Bank governor thinks the bank is a kauri tree, Treasury is trying to measure your sun and moon feelings, and the Minister of Statistics says a census that missed 700,000 people is good work by the Chief Statistician. If this Government wants to ban foolish speech, it will have to seriously look at shutting itself down.
“More importantly, creating a censor with the ability to make arbitrary judgments of what is and isn’t a reasonable opinion for people to express is counter to the Bill of Rights Act, which says everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.
“Creating such a ‘public decency tribunal’, as Peter Dunne seems to advocate, is the stuff of police states and Third World dictators. Hiding behind the euphemistic language of ‘public decency’ is the terrifying power of the censor who can visit punishment on people, with opinion being the only test of whether a crime has been committed and punishment is warranted.
“That Orwellian future is one that must be resisted by every free-thinking New Zealander at all costs.”