John Carapiet: GE Free New Zealand spokesperson on the rule changes regarding genetically modified food

There’s a concern consumer choice is at risk with new rules changing the labelling requirements around gene editing. 

The change will see New Zealand mirror the genetic technology legislation in Australia. 

It'll mean food produced using new breeding techniques, including gene editing, will not need to be labelled as genetically modified unless it contains new DNA. 

GE Free New Zealand spokesperson Jon Carapiet told Ryan Bridge consumers care about how their food is made. 

He says people care about free-range for example, even when it actually doesn't mean a huge difference in the end product. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are concerns this morning about regulations of genetically modified foods.
Minister for Food Safety Andrew Hoggart has quietly greenlit new
rules set by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. The
changes have been genetically modified food without foreign DNA would
no longer need to be labeled as genetically modified in supermarkets.

(00:22):
John krapiit is GE free New Zealand with us this morning, John,
Good morning, Hello. What's wrong with that?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, the main problem is that the deal in New
Zealand has always been that whether you can support GMOs
or don't support GMOs, there'd be a right to choose,
so there'll be disclosure in the supermarkets. And we haven't
actually had many GMOs in New Zealand. There's some imported,
many imported as processed oils and other ingredients, but nothing

(00:53):
in New Zealand has grown. That's g of GE. That's
about to change potentially with the Gas Technology Bill going
through Parliament separately. But what has happened yesterday or a
couple of days ago, is that after many years of
consulting with the public saying do you want do you
really want to know? Is a GMO? The answer was

(01:14):
yes from the public submissions to the food authorities, but
they completely ignored the public. They said that labeling was
out of scope and there isn't going to be any
and that decision is based as you said, it's based
on if there's no foreign DNA, it's been ging edited,
but it's not going to be labeled. And that's a furfe,
a scientific fur fee, obviously in the interests of industry,

(01:37):
because the real reason why there's not been many GMOs
in New zealm And it's not because they've been a ban,
because there hasn't been a ban, but really the market
has said they don't want it, both locally and globally.
So to jack it up, to jack up the market,
to have like essentially set up market failure by you're
not going to have a choice. That's really wrong and

(02:00):
that's why it's really bad that the ministers signed their
off with the Australian ministers to say you're not going
to have a choice.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
John Food Standards Australia, New Zealand. They say, actually, this
is going to provide more clarity for consumers, for your
customers that the definition change they're talking about is focusing
on the change that's been made rather than the process
used to make the change.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's right, and as I say, that's for scientific and
consumer furthy, because consumers care about how things are made.
I mean, if you think about like a free range
often there's not a big difference in the product, but
the way the animal was run, the way it was raised,
is important for consumers. And so whether it's a safety

(02:44):
issue or not, it is a safety issue, by the way,
and I'll explain that shortly, but whether it's a safety
issue or not, the risk should not be transferred onto
the consumer because they don't know it's GMO. And to
take away that labeling is really, as I say, it
completely overturns the social contract because the risk has always
been left with the public. But the labeling and the

(03:07):
chaceability and the testing of these products was like the
counter to that bill takes away chaseability. There is no
labeling and there's no pretesting, and that's where the Achilles
heel of the food safety comes in, right, because if
you don't check what you've done, it doesn't have to
have foreign DNA to have unexpected changes through gene editing,

(03:29):
and n's why the charge should be there.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Okay, I appreciate you coming on the show. That bell
that you're talking about obviously hasn't been through yet, but
we were talking about changes that were announced yesterday by
Food Safety by the Andrew Hoggart, who's the Food Minister.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
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