Gene Technology Bill submission
Fonterra supports the Gene Technology Bill and believes a more modern approach to gene technology can help speed up important research, lower development costs, and support innovation in farming.
The Bill’s approach to risk could help stimulate more research, encourage local investment and create jobs by more easily allowing contained activities.
Gene technology also has the potential to improve on-farm productivity and environmental outcomes.
We recognise that the application of gene technology in New Zealand’s farming system must be carefully assessed within the context of our unique pastoral model, due to the challenges of containment and market sensitivities.
That’s why we’re making several recommendations for changes to the bill that will help better achieves its aims and maintain sensible safeguards for New Zealand’s unique pastoral farming system. These include:
- Better recognising risks to New Zealand’s trade and market access
- Providing greater certainty of the process to determine non-notifiable and unregulated activities
- More appropriately address the extent to which international influences factor into the regime.
For further detail you can read our full submission here.