Rethinking glyphosate
Last year the Environmental Protection Authority called for information on the popular weed killer glyphosate, but are they dithering to avoid a risk assessment? Bonnie Flaws investigates.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently reviewing information provided by the public on the herbicide glyphosate after issuing a call for information last year, which could lead to reassessment, including a full risk assessment.
The controversial weed killer glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide in the organophosphate class, is the most widely used weedkiller in the world, and certainly in New Zealand. It has been used here since the 1970s. It is the active ingredient in formulations referred to as GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides), of which there are 89 approved mixtures in New Zealand, including the ubiquitous Roundup.
Despite a 2018 class-action lawsuit in the United States that awarded US$289 million to a groundskeeper who developed terminal cancer from using Roundup, in New Zealand the EPA still classifies glyphosate as a “low-toxicity herbicide”.
EPA General Manager Chris Hill said the call for information had been initiated to get a better understanding of how GBHs are used in New Zealand, “with a view to making a decision about whether a reassessment is necessary, and if so, to pursue grounds for reassessment”.
Many responders were professional users who said it was safe and highly beneficial if used properly. About 60 per cent of responders were non-users who said it was a toxic poison that should be banned or restricted.
No decision has yet been made, but it appears the EPA is waiting to see whether the European Chemicals Agency and the European Food Safety Authority decide to go ahead with a reassessment – a decision that was recently deferred until next year. “The information we have received from our call for information better prepares us to assess the European findings and consider further actions for New Zealand,” Hill says.
“There is no scientist in
New Zealand that is paid to
research pesticides and
pesticide risk.”
JODIE BRUNING
What we do know and what we don’t
The use of GBHs has broadened significantly since their initial introduction as weedkillers for agricultural crops. They are now widely used by councils on roadsides where our children walk to school and can run into drains, to kill weeds in waterways, and as a pre-harvest desiccant to dry out crops under threat from ill-timed rain, sociologist Jodie Bruning points out.
This last use gives farmers more control over when they can harvest, and essentially sees cereals and pulses doused with the chemical just ahead of harvest, leaving higher residues on crops. It is difficult to get information about how common this practice is in New Zealand.
Similarly, we don’t know how much glyphosate is applied in New Zealand every year, as we stopped reporting this to the Food and Agriculture Organisation back in 2009, Bruning tells me. However, a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US found that more than 80 per cent of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a study contained glyphosate.
Environmental and health impacts
Legal discovery in court cases brought against Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup, in the US have brought some stark realities to light about glyphosate toxicity, Bruning says.
In particular, it’s now known that GBH residues on the skin absorb in and pool under the dermal layer, which is how farmers have long-term exposure. “The EPA says if you are fully protected you’ll be safe. They have not communicated risk to farmers on glyphosate. You still see farmers out there in jandals, and roadside sprayers where kids are walking home from school,” says Bruning.
Then there is the risk to the soil web. A recent report from the UK Soil Association found that evidence of glyphosate’s impact on the soil and soil life was inconclusive: “Research indicates potential impacts in increasing crop diseases, changing the composition and functioning of soil microorganism species and ecosystems, and recently published studies are showing a negative impact on earthworms. Scientists working in this field are calling for future research to be carried out. This is urgent given the widespread and heavy use of glyphosate worldwide.”
But as Professor Jack Heinemann, a geneticist at the University of Canterbury points out, glyphosate is a biocide, and kills more than just plants. It also kills microbiota.
Heinemann’s work shows that herbicides, including GBHs, cause bacteria to become resistant to clinical antibiotics. This literature is not being considered by regulatory agencies, including the EPA.
Risk assessment (which for glyphosate has not been done) tends to look at a chemical’s direct toxicity to humans or animals, or pollinators like bees. Regulators have not thought about how herbicides change microbiota to become either more receptive to disease or cause bacteria to become less responsive to antibiotics, he says.
“Glyphosate and other herbicides constitute some of the largest releases of synthetically developed chemistry [in the world], so the exposures are broad. We also know that antibiotic resistance is happening way faster than we had hoped or predicted.
“This additional chemical exposure gives us some explanatory power as to why antibiotic resistance is so pervasive and seemingly irreversible, so we think they should be taken account of in risk assessments.”
And of course, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the world’s leading authority and gold standard on carcinogenicity, famously declared glyphosate to be a probable cause of cancer in humans back in 2015.
“Glyphosate and other
herbicides constitute some of the
largest releases of synthetically
developed chemistry, so the
exposures are broad.”
JACK HEINEMANN
New Zealand’s “no-science” problem
Bizarrely, instead of relying on the IARC’s findings, the EPA commissioned its own report, by a single author – a toxicologist with no background in epidemiology – which concluded that glyphosate was unlikely to be genotoxic or carcinogenic to humans, and did not require reclassification under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act. This report was roundly criticised in two subsequent papers.
A 2017 paper from the Green Party, authored by Bruning and former MP Steffan Browning, called out the EPA’s decision to ignore IARC’s findings, concluding that the science and opinion that it primarily relied on in its assessment was supplied by industry, and based on unpublished data instead of the independent, peer-reviewed science that informed IARC’s classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen.
Then, in 2018, scientists at the Centre for Public Health Research published a paper asking if the EPA was “lost in the weeds”. One of the authors, Andrea T. Mannetje, had been part of the 17-strong IARC panel in 2015.
This paper, which Bruning describes as the most important paper on glyphosate to have been published in New Zealand, also drew attention to the EPA’s reliance on non-peer-reviewed industry-funded studies, making it impossible to evaluate its validity and conclusions.
Bruning says there is no evidence in the EPA’s archives that it has ever done a risk assessment of glyphosate. Nor has its subcommittee ever met since the IARC findings to decide if there was new evidence of toxicity that would require a formal risk assessment under the HSNO Act. “This is part of New Zealand’s ‘no science’ problem. There is no scientist in New Zealand that is paid to research pesticides and pesticide risk.” The EPA’s call for information was essentially “dithering”, when it ought to be conducting a thorough risk assessment, Bruning says.
“The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has drawn attention to how bad our science and monitoring system is. It’s deplorable. Science is now captured within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.”
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, in a recent report, questioned the adequacy of the information on which we base important environmental decisions. He recommends, among other things, that the Ministry for the Environment develop regulations to require and empower the EPA to collate, collect and report on the quantity and use of chemicals in New Zealand. With this information, we could do quality environmental monitoring.
Upton concludes that our regulatory system does not always ask the questions that need to be asked, and that “it needs a basis for providing better scrutiny of the chemicals New Zealand uses a lot of and which have the potential to cause harm”.
Sign our petition
Support the Soil & Health
Association in their campaign
to restrict the use of GBHs.
Read more below.
soilandhealth.org.nz/glyphosate
Sign our petition
Since July 2020, the Soil & Health Association (publisher of Organic NZ) has been campaigning the government to restrict the use of GBHs in the following ways:
- Banning the use of glyphosate in public places and around waterways.
- Banning foliar sprays (pre-harvest) of glyphosate formulations on human and animal feed crops.
- Conducting a first-ever risk assessment of the active ingredient glyphosate, and the retail formulation sold in shops, using independent published and openly available scientific data
Sign our petition: soilandhealth.org.nz/glyphosate
Countries that restrict or ban glyphosate
After the International Agency for Research on Cancer declared glyphosate to be a probable human carcinogen in 2015, many countries have made moves towards an outright ban (there have been delays and pushback in numerous cases, however). These include Bahrain, Malawi, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Bermuda, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy and The Netherlands.
Another 21 countries have restricted the use of glyphosate at the district level or issued statements of intent for a future ban or use reduction.
Non-toxic garden-weed management
- Before creating a new garden, kill off any grass or weeds by laying down thick pieces of cardboard or old carpet for a couple of weeks.
- Mulching heavily with pea straw, grass clippings, seaweed and bark helps suppress weeds and builds
up organic matter in the soil. - Pull them out little and often before they have a chance to go to seed. Focus your efforts on the true baddies, like strangling convolvulus.
- Use weeds as a natural mulch by chopping and dropping them. Just remove any seed heads or flowers.
- Avoid composting troublesome weeds that might regrow, such as the bulbs of oxalis and onion weed. Instead, rot them down in a sealed bucket of water for six months, then add it to your compost or dilute it with water and apply it as a fertiliser.
- Plant densely so your soil is covered and weeds have to compete for their place with the plants you do want.
- If you can’t beat ’em, why not eat ’em! (See our story on page 40.)
- Some local councils allow you to opt out of weed spraying on your berm. Check out their websites.
Bonnie Flaws is a freelance journalist and writer based in Napier. She grows an organic vegetable garden and shops organic wherever her budget allows.
The wellbeing of food in Aotearoa
We produce enough food in New Zealand to feed 40 million people, yet one in five Kiwi kids live in households that experience food insecurity.
Gareth Hughes talks about his new role as lead of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa.
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How do you get a cabbage? My book, A Gentle Radical: The life of Jeanette Fitzsimons, was recently published, and in researching the biography I stumbled upon an unusual speech the late Green Party politician had given at the Fourth New Zealand Energy Conference entitled “Two Ways to Get a Cabbage”. What on earth did cabbages have to do with a late 1970s energy conference? Fortunately, I was able to track down a faded typewriter-written copy of her speech where Jeanette used the vegetable as an example of the very different approaches society takes to provide things like cabbages.
The mainstream approach, even back then, was energy intensive, relying on artificial fertilisers, chemical pesticides, insecticides and fungicides, and complicated fossil fuel-dependent transport and retail chains. The embedded energy and resources that went into growing a commercial cabbage was huge, and if it wasn’t the uniform size, shape or appearance it would be thrown out rather than sold at the market. She contrasted that cabbage with the home-grown organic variety planted and tended with no need for machinery and pesticides, saying “It represents time, effort, caring and an exchange with the earth.” The home-grown cabbage was fresher, tastier and more nutritious but she pointed out that only the commercial cabbage was represented in official economic statistics of progress.
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What does our food really cost us?
We’ve never had more volume of food produced globally than now but our connection to that food is at its lowest point in history. Are we looking at the bigger picture when we buy a cabbage or any item in our modern food system? The current paradigm is dominated by corporate giants, global trade networks and is dependent on huge inputs of energy and chemicals. While we might complain about the high cost of food in the supermarket as inflation rates rise, the really staggering cost is being paid by earth systems – soil, water and atmosphere. How we produce food is a major driver of climate change and biodiversity loss. Every year we draw down further on nature’s balance sheet while too often only valuing the financial one.
Across my 20-year career as a progressive campaigner and Member of Parliament, food has remained as a major theme across all my mahi. I’ve led the engagement work for New Zealand’s food rescue sector, been arrested dressed as Ronald McDonald, which triggered the fast-food giant to ditch GE-fed chicken, protested palm oil ships and Fonterra’s gigantic use of coal, passed the Country of Origin of Food Act so Kiwis can know where their food has come from, and for our moana achieved a ban on shark finning and negotiated in government for cameras on fishing boats. Food touches every part of our lives, society and economy – how it’s grown, how it’s sold and who gets it.
I’ve recently started working for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a global collaboration of organisations, individuals and governments to transform the economic system into one that prioritises shared well-being for people and the planet, as the Aotearoa country lead. A wellbeing economy would deliver purpose, nature, fairness and participation – what would that look like for food in New Zealand?
Right now we have an unhealthy relationship with food. We export a volume of food that’s estimated to feed up to 40 million people yet one in five Kiwi kids live in households that experience food insecurity. There’s real hunger and malnutrition in New Zealand. Despite the cost of food – highlighted recently by the Commerce Commission’s staggering estimate that $1 million dollars a day in excess profit is being taken from consumers by the supermarket duopoly – on average, each New Zealand household throws out an estimated $1520 worth of food every year. Collectively, that’s more than $3 billion worth of good food rotting away and contributing to climate change. Agricultural production is responsible for half of New Zealand’s emissions, and dairy’s impact on our rivers and lakes, and nitrate contamination of water supplies are well-known problems. Every year 192 million tonnes of our most precious resource – soil – washes out to sea as a result of our land-use practices. New Zealand still sprays chemicals banned in Europe and uses destructive bottom-trawling fishing techniques, smashing ancient deep sea coral.
Making progress
Despite the gloom, there are bright spots emerging. We see the growth of food cooperatives and farmers’ markets where consumers can have a closer relationship with producers. The organics sector grew 20 percent between 2017 and 2020. Regenerative farming has become a household name, and more farmers are experimenting with reducing stocking rates and finding that their profits are increasing.
Food-rescue organisations report 30 million meals were provided in the last year, turning an environmental problem into a social solution. Pātaka kai (free pantries) are popping up all over Aotearoa to facilitate sharing food. New products are hitting the market, from pea-protein meat alternatives and bread made from crickets to delicious oat milk brands. Growing numbers of New Zealanders are eating more plant-based meals for health, environmental or ethical reasons, and as a nation dependent on food and fibre exports, international consumers’ desires to purchase food with lower climate and higher animal-welfare standards continue to drive change.
It could be said that today’s problems were once yesterday’s solutions. Around the turn of the millennium, farmers were actively encouraged to convert to dairy and expand into regions totally unsuited to hit exponential growth targets. A focus on volume over value has come with real costs. As we deal with today’s problems – dependence on milk powder exports, environmental degradation, the cost of food, genuine food poverty, and reliance on unethical inputs like palm kernel expeller and phosphate from occupied Western Sahara – we need to ensure we aren’t creating tomorrow’s problems.
What would a fair system look like?
A wellbeing economy of food would look at broader outcomes than just growth rates or profit; it would value wider issues as well – resiliency, sustainability, fairness and access.
One positive example of this happening right now is the fact there is such a thing as a free lunch in New Zealand. Currently 220,000 kids are receiving free lunches in low-decile schools. The primary objective was to make sure children going without were fed, but what schools report are additional benefits for students’ health and food awareness. It’s impacting their attendance, ability to learn and participate in class and is building a sense of school community. It’s a solution-multiplier that was avoided for many years just on the question of cost, and is delivering significant benefits. Ideally we will build on the success and ensure the food used is organic, grown locally and that students can connect with growers.
Another example is Wakatū, a company owned by 4000 Māori families in the Nelson region. Wakatū has a 500-year strategy focused on their tikanga, or values, the taonga that is the land and water, and manaakitanga for the people. Kono, their food branch, is one of the region’s largest employers and exports to more than 80 countries.
Imagine if New Zealand and our food system had a 500-year strategy! We have made a start – factoring in well-being in our national budgets, and now we need to do that in all the decisions government and business make. How we grow a cabbage, produce milk or catch a fish matters more than just the quarterly profit and loss statement.
I believe thinking long term and holistically from a wellbeing perspective would encourage regenerative, restorative agriculture and food sovereignty. Tangata whenua would be able to harvest kai from healthy rivers and seas. We’d see more food forests and community gardens. We would eat food in season and we would know its provenance and how it was produced. Food poverty would be consigned to history and nutritious organic food would be available for all – not just those who can afford it. Let’s move from just counting commercial cabbages to valuing everything that matters.
Gareth Hughes is a former Green Party MP and the country lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance: weall.org.
Visiting Motueka’s Toad Hall café
Louise Perzigian visits a Motueka food business that serves up freshly grown organic produce grown on the same plot of land.
Photography: Victoria Vincent
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The history of GE in New Zealand
Bonnie Flaws investigates New Zealand’s ongoing debate on the regulation of genetic modification
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The question of whether we should allow genetic engineering in New Zealand has been raging for almost as long as the technology has been around – since the 1970s. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the sentiment among the public was decidedly anti-GMO, with protest a regular feature of the political landscape, including famous hīkoi that travelled from Northland to Wellington. Now the topic is in the headlines again after the Productivity Commission recommended in its 2021 report that New Zealand’s strict laws regulating genetic engineering ought to be reviewed, in part because the techniques used have evolved.
GM, GMO, GE, GEd – what exactly does it all mean?
- New Zealand law defines a genetically modified organism (GMO) as any organism in which any of the genes or other genetic material have been modified by, inherited or otherwise derived through any number of replications, by in vitro techniques.
- Genetic engineering (GE) is the use of in vitro techniques to make genetically modified organisms.
- Genetic modification (GM) is used interchangeably with the term genetic engineering by experts in the field.
- Transgenic techniques, what we traditionally think of as genetic engineering, use a foreign “gene of interest” that has been cultured and inserted into a cell of the host organism. Today, it’s more common to hear about gene editing (GEd) techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9, TALENs and ZFNs.
- Gene editing (GEd) techniques have been around since the late 70s, but some tools (nucleases) like CRISPRCas9, TALENs and ZFNs are new.
The use of language in the GM debate
The language used to describe genetic engineering has often been contested by those who would like to see it deregulated. For example, it’s been argued that conventional and selective breeding of plants is a form of genetic engineering. More recently, it has been argued that the biochemical processes of gene editing are similar to those that cause natural mutations.
Jack Heinemann, a professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury, who promotes regulation, says the “equivalence to nature” argument is a semantic obfuscation, but a High Court ruling in 2014 made it unambiguous. New Zealand became the first country to make it explicit in law that gene editing is a technique of genetic modification, meaning it must be regulated. Heinemann was the expert witness in this case. This ruling hinged on the ability of the technique to make changes at scale that wouldn’t happen in nature, he says.
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A potted history
This tension between those for and against regulation has been a continuous thread in the national discourse, with the public generally wanting controls, and industry and parts of academia wanting more freedom to experiment.
After a field trial moratorium was lifted in 1987, the public became increasingly agitated about GE experimentation, particularly around the issue of contamination of agricultural crops, and demand for tighter regulation grew. The first big breakthrough for activists came with the 1996 Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act, leading to the creation of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA). This was the body responsible for overseeing importation, development, field trials and releases of GMOs. The act allowed scientists to experiment with GM techniques in the lab and in contained field trials.
But GE experiments began to cross lines that many people found distasteful and unethical. The worry that GMOs might escape from the lab and contaminate and self-propagate in the environment, or that food with foreign genes inserted might end up on their plate kept activists like Zelka Grammer motivated.
“You have this whole nefarious history of incompetence and slackness, and then even worse, MAF and MPI not adequately monitoring to catch significant breaches of ERMA’s rules of approval,” says the chair of GE-free Tai Tokerau. “People like Stefan Browning from the Green party and local orchardists had to go and find secret field trial locations, take photographic evidence, march down to MAF and MPI and say, ‘WTF! Why are these brassicas flowering out of doors when it’s not allowed under the conditions of approval?’ It was shut down in disgrace over and over and over.”
There was a strong feeling that regulators were not adequately monitoring trials, and the rapid development of the biotech industry was seen as a threat to New Zealand’s agricultural sector. Despite this, industry and academic voices were keen to see the technology liberated for use in both the biomedical and agricultural spheres. Without deregulation, New Zealand would be left behind in the technological and economic race.
Organisations such as the Royal Society Te Apārangi, Plant & Food Research, Scion, NZBio, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Agcarm (New Zealand Association for Animal Health and Crop Protection) and Federated Farmers have all advocated for greater deregulation of genetic engineering over the years.
A petition signed by 92,000 Kiwis called for a Royal Commission to investigate and establish a way forward for the controversial technology. This was done, and in 2000 the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification validated many of the concerns voices by activists. The overall recommendation was to “proceed with caution”, while also rejecting the unrestricted use of genetic engineering. Within a year, a voluntary moratorium was put in place – all in all a landmark year for people power.
Several memorable hīkoi in 2001 and 2003 followed the Commission’s findings. Māori played a big part in their organisation but the movement was broad-based and many New Zealanders took part. Groups like GE-Free New Zealand and Mothers Against Genetic Engineering (MAdGE) had a prominent public voice. In 2015 the Northland and Hastings regions were successful in asserting their own “GE free” status in their district plans.
It is clear that everyone is in it for the money. The risks can be dismissed by appealing to the benefits, and when the benefits are not forthcoming, the promises have to be kept alive. Biotechnology is the south sea bubble at the end of the millennium.
A quote from “The Biotechnology Bubble”, an article by Mae-Wan Ho, Hartmut Meyer and Joe Cummins, originally published in The Ecologist and reprinted in the July 1999 issue of Organic NZ.
However in 2012, CRISPR, a new gene editing tool, had been discovered. Proponents argued it was more precise than transgenics, and led to changes similar to what might happen naturally. Proponents said the technology should be set free to fulfil its potential. It could be applied not only in food production, but also in medical research, pest control and even to tackle climate change.
At the same time, a growing body of scientific literature showed that gene editing gave rise to numerous unintended genetic mutations, and was not as precise as claimed. The Sustainability Council of New Zealand took the Environmental Protection Authority (formerly ERMA) to court to challenge industry claims that gene editing was not genetic engineering.
The 2014 High Court ruling, which determined gene editing was legally a form of genetic modification, also established that the rate and specificity of change was what made the technology risky.
Key dates in the history of GE
| 1973 | First recombinant bacteria is developed in the US. |
| 1978 | The New Zealand government places a moratorium on field releases that remains in place for 10 years. |
| 1980s | The early 1980s sees GE technologies begin to be applied in laboratories in New Zealand, largely for biological and medical research purposes. |
| 1988 | The moratorium on field release is lifted and an Interim Assessment Group (IAG) is established for the field testing and release of genetically modified organisms. |
| 1996 | Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 passes in law, which leads to the establishment of the Environmental Risk Management Authority New Zealand (ERMA). |
| 1999 | The Independent Biotechnology Advisory Committee is established to assess and provide independent advice on the use of GE technology. |
| 2000 | The Royal Commission on Genetic Modification is established and a voluntary moratorium put in place. |
| 2008 | Activists chop down GE pine trees at a Scion forestry research site near Rotorua in 2008 and 2012. |
| 2011 | ERMA becomes the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). |
| 2012 | CRISPR is invented, adding a new tool to the GE toolbox. |
| 2014 | The High Court rules that gene editing is a form of genetic modification. |
| 2015 | Both the Hastings and Northland regions become GE free. |
| 2016 | Auckland becomes GE free. |
| 2021 | Productivity Commission report recommends a full review of HSNO. |
The Māori world view
Māori have largely been vocal opponents of GE from the beginning. “The issue is that using GE will have an impact on the mauri of our food and the soil,” says Lahni Wharerau, kaiwhakahaere of Te Waka Kai Ora, the National Māori Organics Authority. “Mauri is what gives us life force and underpins wellbeing. GE interferes with that.”
Wider news reporting since the Productivity Commission’s report shows that attitudes aren’t set in stone. Maui Hudson, associate professor at the University of Waikato, said a national survey of Māori on the issue of genetic modification and gene editing was done last year, showing a wide variety of perspectives were held. “For some people it’s all the same, whether it’s genetic modification or gene editing, while for others they get that there is a difference and that may change the way you think about it.” However, a “proceed with caution” approach was still valued. “In the context of the conversations we’ve had, there is no appetite for a totally unregulated environment for gene editing.”
The Productivity Commission and the global push for GE deregulation
The New Zealand Productivity Commission last year called for a complete review of HSNO, as well as the legislative framework and institutional arrangements governing genetic engineering, suggesting separate legislation or a standalone regulator.
“Technologies have moved on significantly over the last 20 years. In particular, advances in gene editing have produced technologies such as CRISPR, which enable much faster and more precise modification than earlier tools,” it says in its 2021 report.
Once again, proponents have seized the opportunity to promote deregulation. Jack Heinemann says the push for deregulation is happening globally. Pulling no punches,
he calls it an orchestrated campaign by vested interests – industry and those parts of academia aligned with industry outcomes – that follows the same pattern everywhere, drowning out voices of scientific doubt.
As a geneticist, he is immensely positive about the benefit to society of regulated genetic engineering in the lab, but says both the utopian promise of genetic engineering – how it’s promoted to the public and the regulators – and the risk profile remain unchanged since regulations were put in place. What gene editing does is change the scale and speed at which interventions can be made in nature, he says. “That is precisely what makes a technology risky.”
President of GE-Free New Zealand Claire Bleakley says the HSNO regulations follow a clear pathway to ensure products are safe. “Because GMOs are living organisms they might contaminate the indigenous flora and fauna, the economic crops, or have serious health effects. Our biggest concern is that the Productivity Commission report was basically minimising the dangers of GMOs and highlighting the simplicity of them.”
Sociologist Jodie Bruning agrees the report obfuscates risk, and doesn’t represent what the bulk of submissions had been asking for – just two out of 80 submissions (both from the medical industry) that fed into the Productivity Commission’s 2021 report argued that HSNO should be opened up.
The main fear Jack Heinemann, Claire Bleakley and Jodie Bruning convey is that without the appropriate checks and balances, and careful scientific oversight, niche experimentation with the ability to change organisms at pace and scale would proliferate, and with them, unintended consequences.
“Regulation is not a ban. It isn’t stopping anything. Good science is like good democracy – it needs accountability and transparency. No dark corners,” Bruning says.
Matariki: a new year commences
As Puanga and the Matariki star cluster reappear in our midwinter sky, heralding the start of a new year in Aotearoa, we talk to a healer, a politician, a biodynamic farmer and two organic growers about what Matariki means to them and how they’re choosing to celebrate it.
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Pouwera, the circular community garden in Ōrākei
Rob Small is the curator and designer of Pourewa, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s
productive organic garden in Auckland, which provides kai to local whānau and tells a mātauranga Māori story of its people and their place in the world.
Photography by Sally Tagg
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Pricing up organics
When it comes to groceries, many of us want to shop organic, but can’t afford the higher price tag. So why is organic food more expensive, and when you add up environmental and health factors, does it really cost us more?
By Bonnie Flaws
Illustrations by Vasanti Unka
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Everyone deserves to be able to eat a nutritious diet free of nasty chemicals and spray residues, but for almost all of us, it’s out of reach. Even dedicated organic shoppers in New Zealand have to make compromises, either because of the cost or availability of organic foods. Given affordable options and ready access, I believe most of us would probably favour organic foods all of the time.
But cost more they do, and with rising inflation and geopolitical conflicts impacting on supply chains and energy prices, they are only going to get more expensive. Despite this, there are very good reasons to purchase organic foods whenever your budget can stretch for it.
The case for eating organic
Jodie Bruning, a sociologist with expertise in the public health impacts of pesticides, and a Soil & Health National Council member, says while it can’t be claimed that organics are more nutritious than conventional produce (there is too much variability in soil type, climate and farming practices to make this claim), what is known is that eating organic food dramatically reduces exposure to synthetic, exogenous chemicals. And the risks to health are clear.
“Whether it’s an insecticide, fungicide or herbicide, we’re seeing inflammatory markers worsened. We see neurodevelopmental impacts right through the food chain from the smallest insects to humans in the in vivo studies. One of the biggest costs of pesticides is endocrine (hormonal) disruption.”
In fact, scientists are seeing worrying associations between pesticide exposure – particularly organophosphates – on learning, IQ and behaviour. A major factor driving parents to purchase organic produce in New Zealand today will be to protect their children’s brain health, she says.
“However it’s not just pesticides. Ultra-processed foods, low in nutrition and fibre and high in additive chemicals can also contribute to health problems and degrade the microbiome, leading to neurological issues, including depression. Organic diets help people move away from these food types.”
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Paying not to pollute
Another reason to buy organic is to protect the environment and biodiversity. And interestingly, this point illuminates something that goes more or less unacknowledged: that when we buy conventional food, in effect, we end up paying more.
We might pay less at the checkout, but over the long term and in other ways, we still end up paying the price for polluting. Noel Josephson, chairman of Ceres Organics, the country’s oldest organic retailer, explains: “The price on the supermarket shelf is not the true cost of the product – it’s only the economic cost. It doesn’t account for the cost to your health or the damage to the environment – all of those are passed on to the future. That is the key to understanding what it is you’re buying and if it’s good value. If you apply ‘true cost accounting’, organics comes out cheaper than conventional.”
True cost accounting factors in the externalised costs of conventional food production. One example, says Noel, is the amount councils pay to remove agricultural chemicals from the water supply. Another is the cost of health care to treat diseases resulting from toxic exposures. The cost is socialised, or delayed, but we still end up paying.
However, Geoff Kira, a senior lecturer at the School of Health Sciences at Massey University, says food insecurity affects one in five Kiwi families, and many people are paying up to 50 percent of their weekly budget on the rent alone. Such abstract calculations are not realistically going to be a factor in the weekly food shop for many.
“If you apply ‘true cost accounting’, organics comes out cheaper than conventional.”
NOEL JOSEPHSON, CHAIRPERSON, CERES ORGANICS
*Correction: the price quoted above for tinned tomatoes from Commonsense Organics should read $0.57 for 100g. We incorrectly listed the 400g price.
Why organics cost more
Teva Stewart, retail manager at Commonsense, says price generally comes down to the cost of production. Organic production doesn’t rely on chemicals to take care of weeds, so labour costs are higher. They’re also not intensively planted or stocked, so overall yields are lower. These, along with certification, add costs right off the bat. However, organic production is generally just more expensive in New Zealand.
“It can cost more to eat an organic product produced here than one produced overseas and shipped in,” he says. Case in point: a 500ml bottle of imported Spanish extra virgin olive oil costs $7 less than a locally produced one at my local organic shop. Teva also notes that distribution is more costly because we don’t have a rail network, instead relying on trucks, while the volumes of organic products being distributed are vastly smaller than conventional in New Zealand.
Countdown’s assistant manager of organic produce Savilla Manuel says while demand for organic products is growing – sales grew 24 percent year-on-year in the period ending June 2021 – the scale of domestic production is comparatively tiny. Supermarkets are largely reliant on local suppliers, so things like adverse weather events, labour shortages and import restrictions have a significant impact on supply. Compounding the problem, organic land conversion takes about three years, a time commitment many growers are hesitant to make, she says. “This effectively reduces the number of larger growers within the industry from making the move to convert to organic, which otherwise would help to improve overall supply and reduce prices.”
How low can they go?
Organic retailers will tell you that they already do all they can to offer organic goods at the lowest price. Due to bulk importation, certain items, such as tinned tomatoes, can be offered on special regularly. However, other types of food, such as root vegetables, will generally always be the same price, Teva says. “Things like carrots, beetroot and potatoes, which are in the ground for a long time and require a lot of weeding, they are always going to be $8 per kg in an organic store because those labour costs are there.”
Noel Josephson says the market conditions that apply to conventional usually apply to organic. For example, New Zealand is competitive at producing wine, apples and kiwifruit. Organic production of these goods can also be done competitively and at scale, he says. “The point I’m making is that there is not much that is going to change from market to market, which isn’t already there, which is really caused by other factors such as the growing environment, the trading environment or the government regulations,” he says. But that doesn’t mean the conditions for lower prices can’t be brought about. This is happening now in the European Union where 25 percent of all agriculture is set to go organic by 2030, he says.
BioGro chief executive Donald Nordeng agrees, and says if the country could get over the idea that government shouldn’t support farmers directly, there would be more likelihood prices could come down. “We could do something amazing, but currently we don’t have price support, which I think is a misnomer,” he says. The EU is subsidising half the cost of certification and providing crop insurance for organic farmers, incentivising organic conversion. There is also money available for farming infrastructure, such as fencing, riparian planting and tree planting. “[There are] all sorts of improvements. Billions and billions of dollars that are being earmarked for [organic] agricultural production. Here we don’t have any regulation yet so the government really can’t take action.” The Organic Products Bill is currently making its way through the house, and when the regulation is in place, it will bring greater investment and funding to grow the sector, he says.
Noel says it’s something the country should aspire to. “It’s definitely in New Zealand’s interest. If we went organic, we would get a greater return for the same amount of land, we would have a less polluted environment, and it could support the regions.”
Bonnie Flaws is a freelance journalist and writer based in Napier. She grows an organic vegetable garden and shops organic wherever her budget allows.
To GE or not to GE: Organic growers consider Pfizer
Organic NZ asked four organic growers to share their stories of how they navigated ethical considerations regarding the Pfizer vaccine.
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Renewed focus on nutrition and health
Everyone we spoke to is hopeful we emerge from the pandemic with a new commitment to local healthy food production. Dom Ferretti, of Ferretti Growers near Nelson, says their vegetable box deliveries are doing very well: “More people are taking the plunge into organics who may have been on the fence before. We are struggling to meet demand.” This growth in sales is also true for Untamed Earth Organic Farm in Christchurch. Co-owner Penny Platt told Organic NZ the pandemic has been a mixed bag:
“In some ways it’s been challenging. Managing staff interactions to stop the spread, and with the markets closed, we’ve had to change how we work. But we’ve also benefitted. Vege box sales have gone up. People are thinking more about local food and eating at home. We’ve built our profile and connected with more people who are coming to us instead of buying from supermarkets.”
When it comes to staying healthy, a focus on good nutrition and active stress management have been key planks for Dom Ferretti. “We’ve been mindful of the extra stress and hard work as a result of the pandemic. Our focus has been on eating well and ensuring we get enough zinc and vitamins C and D. These are efforts to keep all viruses at bay. Relaxation and stress release through yoga have also been important for us, and we’ve been doing a lot of cold-water therapy, which has some great benefits.”
“In general, there is not enough focus on empowerment of the people to take their health into their own hands. It’s a tragedy to have to rely solely on outside help when there is so much opportunity for self-sustainability, and endless available resources out there to get people started!”
KELLY DIGGLE, ĀRĀMA GARDENS & NURSERY
What about the vaccine?
The importance of people having the right to make their own personal decision about vaccination was common to everyone we spoke to. Penny Platt’s view is that GE technology has been used recklessly, but that in the pandemic we have to look at a wider set of concerns. “Not being an expert on the science, I defer to people who are. I am trusting of the public health response, and that it’s been conducted with peoples’ needs in mind. I don’t feel concerned about that.
“Regarding our organic philosophy – the core of it is about health and well-being and fairness. The thing I
am prioritising is the vulnerable and their health and wellbeing. The vaccination programme helps us to support other people as well as ourselves.”
Penny is still opposed to the use of GE in foods. “I am opposed to GE because it enables patenting tech that disempowers local food growers and indigenous communities, and takes ownership away from the people and gives it to corporates. What gets lost when we replace heirloom seeds and the natural varieties through GE? This is not the same for the vaccine. The use of GE tech has often been reckless, and unjustified, which is the problem. It doesn’t mean there aren’t justified ways of using it.”
“The GE technology isn’t GMO or anything like that. Yes, it uses GE technology and that is hard to square with organics but this is such a unique and hopefully very rare situation.”
TIM GOW, MANGAPIRI DOWNS
Dom Ferretti draws a parallel with the chemical revolution in agriculture and the mistakes that were made around chemical safety. “Our gut feeling was that this was not right. We have spent so many years being very aware and careful of what we put into our bodies. Then when we looked into it, we found plenty of evidence which caused concern. Lots of evidence suggested more caution needed to be taken with the vaccine than people were taking. My observation has been that these industrial products are always presented as safe and effective at the outset. Then only later do we realise the harmful effects. This is true of the chemical revolution in farming. My grandfather moved out from Italy and became a market gardener in the early 20th century. He and his family got swept up in the chemical revolution. In the end, my father told me that organics is the only way for the long term. We ended up with a lot of cancer in the family from chemical exposure.”
Kelly Diggle of Ārāma Gardens & Nursery near Kaitaia, says a GE vaccine doesn’t sit well with her growing philosophy. “There’s a deep connection to the food sustaining me because I have participated in the growth and health of that plant before it essentially transforms into the very cells living in this body! The likes of a GE vaccine – which does not require the time, effort and commitment that is needed for a rich interpersonal relationship to develop – in its very nature goes against the flow of life.”
Southland organic farmer Tim Gow says he wrestled with the decision for a long time. “We haven’t vaccinated our sheep stock in nearly 20 years and haven’t needed to. But then I looked at how this is a bit of a unique situation, being a global pandemic with essentially a completely new virus. So that was the deciding factor for me. The GE technology isn’t GMO or anything like that. Yes, it uses GE technology and that is hard to square with organics but this is such a unique and hopefully very rare situation. I’m also in that category of people more at risk due to my age.”
Getting back to a new normal
Regardless of opinions, everyone is hopeful we can build better connections with food as we emerge from the pandemic. Kelly Diggle wants to see more encouragement towards things like organic gardening, food security, community building and food sustainability. “In general, there is not enough focus on empowerment of the people to take their health into their own hands. It’s a tragedy to have to rely solely on outside help when there is so much opportunity for self-sustainability, and endless available resources out there to get people started!”
Dom Ferretti agrees: “We hope that people take more charge of their immune system; and that they utilise nutrition and other health practices to protect themselves. We also hope that mandates are dropped and never used again, and that we accept that this virus needs to run its course as nature intends.”
Penny Platt hopes that the high vaccination rate will enable us to move through this pandemic safely. “The location of our farm means we work around vulnerable people – a residential care facility for people with disabilities. So we take extra care. But I am also looking forward to returning to more of a balanced life. I hope we can have less heated conversations once the direct effects are not so acute.”
