THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE

11 October 2003

Dear friends and colleagues,

RE: DISILLUSIONED GE SCIENTIST EXPRESSES FEAR OVER TECHNOLOGY

A former GE scientist in New Zealand said that there is much that we still do not know about the effects of genetic engineering on the environment, wildlife and humans, and warned against the lifting of the current national moratorium on the technology or otherwise there is “no turning back”.

“It’s totally like a Pandora’s Box,” said Dr Elvira Dommisse, who once worked on a GE onion project in a company, until she became disillusioned by genetic engineering.

She issued her warnings as the New Zealand government prepares to lift the country’s moratorium on the planting of GM crops in about five weeks. She is particularly concerned that there are no long-term tests being conducted and the government is making the decision in haste and ignoring oppositions from the public in the GE debate.

She is also worried that too much funding was going into biotechnology at the expense of other sectors of the scientific community, especially those working to better understand the implications of genetic engineering.

We attach below a report of an interview with Dommisse for your information.

With best wishes,

Lim Li Lin and Chee Yoke Heong

Third World Network

121-S Jalan Utama

10450 Penang

Malaysia

Email: twnet@po.jaring.my

Website: www.twnside.org.sg

REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2003/B

Expert shares GE fears

Southland Times (New Zealand)

2 October 2003 

By SONIA GERKEN

The Government would be committing New Zealanders to an unknown future with no chance of going back when it lifted the moratorium on genetic engineering, former GE scientist Elvira Dommisse warned.

Not enough was known about the effects of genetic engineering on the environment, insects and humans for a moratorium to be lifted, the former Gore woman said during a brief visit to her home town.

“We don’t know what we don’t know.” Dr Dommisse ran the GE onion project for Crop and Food from 1985 to 1993, discovered it was possible to introduce GE into the humble vegetable and was the first person to publish a paper worldwide on the genetic modification of onions.

She became involved in genetic engineering because that was where the funding was and she admitted the times were exciting.

However, by 1993 she had become disillusioned and resigned from Crop and Food, no longer wanting to be involved in research on the genetic engineering of crops.

Dr Dommisse said she had been annoyed so much funding was going into biotechnology at the expense of other sectors of the scientific community, a situation that had not altered a decade later.

Senior scientists in areas that were vital to the understanding of the implications of GE, such as entomology, were being made redundant.

GE offered only short-term gains, if any, and there was no way of controlling where introduced DNA would insert itself, Dr Dommisse said.

“It’s totally like a Pandora’s Box.”

Making a plant insect-resistant was only good until the insect became resistant. Then it was back to square one, Dr Dommisse said.

It was extraordinary the Government had ignored well-informed individuals and groups in the GE debate, not to mention the majority of New Zealanders, who opposed the lifting of the moratorium.

There was a high degree of unease among those in the GE research industry, said Dr Dommisse, who keeps in touch with former colleagues.

Those who worked for a Crown Research Institute expressed their concerns only privately through fear of losing their jobs, she said.

Dr Dommisse was convinced once GE field trials began there would be no way to stop the spread of GE genes in seeds and pollen borne by insects and the wind, while the country’s international markets, built on a reputation for food safety and quality, would be threatened.

The haste with which the Government and GE scientists were forging ahead was a major concern.

“What scares me is normally there are long-term tests but everything is being fast-tracked and hush-hushed.”

With the moratorium due to be lifted in about five weeks, Dr Dommisse said it was vitally important to do anything to slow down the process, such as lobbying politicians and food manufacturers. If the moratorium were lifted her greatest fear was for New Zealand’s lucrative honey export industry. Bees foraged everywhere and it would be devastating if they brought GE pollen into hives.

In a perfect world the moratorium would stay in place and GE labelling of food would be compulsory.

In a nearly perfect world the public would be told exactly where and what the GE trial crops were.

Dr Dommisse doubted if all of those things would happen but that would not stop her trying to make sure they did.