What’s at stake: The Government is drafting new legislation – aimed at ending the effective ban on genetic modification in New Zealand – which could be in force by the end of next year.
Background: Technology has changed greatly since the country’s emotive debates on GE and GMO over the past three decades. Today, many local companies are working on novel solutions to problems such as methane emissions, climate change, cancer, and pest control.
Main players: Government, AgResearch, Scion, GE-Free New Zealand, the public.
Quick explainer:
Genetic modification organisms (GMO): any organism that has been genetically modified through any genetic engineering technique, including transgenic organisms.
Genetic modification (GM): The act of utilising genetic technology to modify the genome of an organism, also referred to as genetic engineering. This doesn’t include traditional breeding techniques.
Gene editing (GE): Gene editing is a precise form of genetic modification/genetic engineering that enables targeted changes to the DNA sequence.
New genomic techniques (NGT): New genome techniques cover a diverse collection of techniques all of which have different levels of specificity or precision. All NGTs are techniques used to modify the genome of an organism.
Source: Aotearoa Circle report on modern genetic technology.
GMO, GM, GE, NGT – it’s acronym soup but these letters can still stir up huge emotion in Kiwis, especially those in the 1990s protesting the use of the technology in New Zealand.
Drive around the country and the billboards and handwritten signs stating a proud ‘GE FREE New Zealand’ still
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Key points
What’s at stake: The Government is drafting new legislation – aimed at ending the effective ban on genetic modification in New Zealand – which could be in force by the end of next year.
Background: Technology has changed greatly since the country’s emotive debates on GE and GMO over the past three decades. Today, many local companies are working on novel solutions to problems such as methane emissions, climate change, cancer, and pest control.
Main players: Government, AgResearch, Scion, GE-Free New Zealand, the public.
Quick explainer:
Genetic modification organisms (GMO): any organism that has been genetically modified through any genetic engineering technique, including transgenic organisms.
Genetic modification (GM): The act of utilising genetic technology to modify the genome of an organism, also referred to as genetic engineering. This doesn’t include traditional breeding techniques.
Gene editing (GE): Gene editing is a precise form of genetic modification/genetic engineering that enables targeted changes to the DNA sequence.
New genomic techniques (NGT): New genome techniques cover a diverse collection of techniques all of which have different levels of specificity or precision. All NGTs are techniques used to modify the genome of an organism.
Source: Aotearoa Circle report on modern genetic technology.
