Lucy Lawless and other Kiwis come out against Genetic Engineering
and to make New Zealand GE Free
Lucy Section:
Meanwhile, people have registered their farms and homes as "GE Free" and are campaigning to have entire towns and regions declared GE-Free. Film and TV stars such as Sam
Neill and Lucy ("Xena the Warrior Princess") Lawless have taken strong public stands against GE. There has been a dramatic increase in support for organic farming and thousands of citizens have joined SHA's call for Aotearoa to
be "totally organic" by 2020.
Article
NEW ZEALAND (AOTEAROA) -- Last September, a crowd of 10,000 marched down the main street of Auckland to Aotea Square in a bitter cold downpour to protest genetic engineering (GE). Outfitted with banners, costumes and hundreds of
colorful umbrellas, the marchers called for making New Zealand a GE-Free country. It was the largest protest march in 20 years.
"There was chanting and music ranging from drums, to bagpipes, to DJs with rock music," reports Meriel Watts, director of New Zealand's Soil and Health Association (SHA). "The mood was positive and happy -- we will win this
struggle for our rights, our food, our environment."
While most activists insisted on no commercial releases of GE products and no field trials, indigenous Maori activists held to an even firmer line, arguing for an end to GE experiments in the labs, since GE research constitutes
"tampering with life" and is spiritually and culturally unacceptable.
With an election approaching and the government's coalition partner, the Alliance Party, openly opposed to commercial releases of GE crops, Prime Minister Helen Clarke will find it hard to do anything but place a moratorium on
such releases.
Meanwhile, people have registered their farms and homes as "GE Free" and are campaigning to have entire towns and regions declared GE-Free. Film and TV stars such as Sam Neill and Lucy ("Xena the Warrior Princess") Lawless have
taken strong public stands against GE. There has been a dramatic increase in support for organic farming and thousands of citizens have joined SHA's call for Aotearoa to be "totally organic" by 2020.
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