OWEN JENNINGS: Stop, Look, Listen

There seems to exist in our society a phenomena that might be deemed “collective madness”. It occurs when an apparent majority embrace a particular viewpoint without rationale, rhyme or reason. It is usually associated with a core of zealots fostering the fires of insanity and a media who seize on the madness as a means of propping up their failing wares.

It’s not new. In 1841 a Scottish journalist was writing essays on Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. There have been many attempts since to capture this crowd condition and try and understand it.

The phenomena is currently manifest right here in New Zealand. We are spending over a billion dollars of taxpayers’ earnings on trying to stop a rise in temperatures of 4 millionths of one degree. It is not like we have surplus funds to spend on a whim or some vanity project. We are about to suffer an austerity budget because of past profligacy. Unnecessary expenditure should be cut immediately.

New Zealand is so obsessed with saving this impossible-to-measure, amount of warmth that we are prepared to put the major part of their export earnings at risk by playing with genetic manipulation regulations in an attempt to find ways to reduce this insanely miniscule amount of heating. We are assured that GMO’s and a fast track to their release will give us new mitigation tools to deal with the pesky 4 millionths of a degree.

Right now, our Government is creating the most deregulated regime for Genetically Modified Organism research and development of any country in the world. Gene editing can often be a one-way street. Once a new modified organism is out of the lab it can never be recaptured. It does not pay to get it wrong. A negative outcome, an unplanned byproduct of a seemingly safe manipulation could be catastrophic for farming and exports. Proper considered process for any changes is vital.

But the obsession with saving the 4 millionths of a degree is supported by green zealots, a bunch of scientists who are feeding on the frenzy and a growing army of bureaucrats at national, regional and local level who can find one hundred and one ways to regulate, write reports, advise mesmerised politicians with ever increasing absurdities about sea level rise, storms, floods, pestilences and large sections of the sky falling – all from 4 millionths of a degree of warming.

The Government has been warned about the loosening of sensible constraints around the gene manipulation work. All our major export and industry bodies stressed caution, demanded more time to study the potential risks and were turned down flat.

Scientists well respected in the genetic editing field are horrified at our cowboy approach. And such a relaxed regime will attract more cowboys to come and undertake their risky genetic modification work here exacerbating the problem.

The Prime Minister is very committed to growing the economy and so he should be. The nation needs to be performing better and new technological developments and the regulatory freedom to adopt them play a vital role in such improvements. But, not at any cost. Not by taking unnecessary risks. Not by rushing legislation on complex and potentially dangerous issues.

There are many areas where R and D on GMO’s is and will bring significant gains for the wider society. No one is pushing a Luddite approach. It is the area of practical agriculture and the lack of clear checks and balances, proper accountability and lack of clarity that rings alarm bells.

There are unanswered critical questions arising from the Bill being pushed through the House. Questions about where liability lies in the situation of an escaping a GMO (think Wuhan Lab). There must be strict liability for any unforeseen harm as a handbrake and to ensure equitability. Why aren’t economic risks included as mandatory in assessments? Why are some gene editing processes left unregulated? Why are there inadequate systems in place to have the most affected sector – agriculture – involved in the regulatory pathway?

This proposed change has been rushed for reasons unknown. Farmers are rightly asking who benefits from this fast tracking of such a sensitive and potentially devastating business. There should have been an independent group established outside of the politics of Wellington, with adequate time for all submissions and discussion.

The desperate chase for mitigation of methane emissions and their 4 millionths of a degree warming is putting our largest and most successful sector in an invidious position. New technologies are needed in agriculture. But the price on this is too high, far too high.

Mr Prime Minister, Stop, look, listen.

Owen Jennings

Former MP.

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