NZ prides itself as country that has been a prolific food bowl for fresh quality food produced from family farms for over 130 years. ‘It’s in our bones.’
Now with the increasing rush of new technologies, many of these developments are being pushed on to ‘the market’ with a good number not being tested over a longer period of time or over a succession of for example seven to ten generations. (Glyphosate and GE organisms being the case in point).
This is where ethical considerations are being left behind in the haste to profit at all costs and in the process - overtaking or bypassing the code of - duty of care and the precautionary principle.
Farmers and people who work the land are by their nature conservative and do what they know has successfully worked for them in the past - and they are weary of smart young technocrats who may have never got dirt under their fingernails, selling them yet another device or method that takes them further from what they intuitively feel is natural.
So the saga of GE and GMO’s is now taking a turn for the better in NZ, especially for consumers in our country, as well as globally and in particular the ecology of this country.