[pf] US _In_Motion_Magazine_ interview: Jeanette Fitzsimons, MP

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/jf1.html
  starts:

>From Nuclear Free to Genetic Engineering Free

Soil ecology: the most serious and the least understood ecological risk
from genetically engineered crops

Interview with Jeanette Fitzsimons, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand 
 by Nic Paget-Clarke, Publisher and Co-editor {see:
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/staff.html }

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/js1.jpg   
 Jeanette Fitzsimons, MP , Photo  

 Sections:

* Uncontrollable process 
* Royal Commission of Inquiry 
* Grassroots organizing 
* Public discussion 
* Royal Commission into nuclear power 
* Impacts of GE on trade and treaties 
* U.S. threats 
* The moratorium on GMO’s 
* Soil ecology 
* Government criteria 
* Options for agriculture 

Jeanette Fitzsimons is a member of the New Zealand parliament and co-chair
of the Green Party.
http://www.greens.org.nz/people/fitzsimons.htm

 This interview is part of an extended series of articles and interviews
gathered by In Motion Magazine in the context of the 2000-2001 hearings of
New Zealand's Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.

  In Motion Magazine travelled around New Zealand with Missouri Rural
Crisis Center { http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/rural.html } and National
Family Farm Coalition president Bill Christison {
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/bill72.jpg } visiting farmers and
community leaders and listening to their views about genetically modified
organisms. Currently there are no commercial GE crops in New Zealand. After
hearing the recommendations of the commission the New Zealand government
will make a decision on whether or not GE crops will be allowed in New
Zealand.

  The interview was conducted February 20, 2001 by Nic Paget-Clarke.

Also see:
- Opposing Genetic Engineering in New Zealand (and around the world) by
Bill Christison: 
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/nzbc1.html ;
- Interview with Maori community leader Sydney Jackson: 
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/sj1.html ;
- Interview with organic dairy farmer Russell Simmons: 
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/russim1.html ;
- Interview with Maui Solomon about the Wai 262 Claim by six Maori tribes: 
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/nztrip/ms1.html ;
- Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Peoples Rights and
Obligations by Maui Solomon: 
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ra01/ms2.html .


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 -= Uncontrollable process =- 

_In_Motion_Magazine_: What do you think of genetic engineering?

_Jeanette_Fitzsimons_: I think the gung-ho attitude of commercializing it
and profiting from it has vastly outrun the capability of the scientists to
control what they are doing. How we use it is probably the most serious
scientific question facing our generation. I think the understanding of
genetics and genomic function and so forth is an avenue that should be
pursued, that there’s a lot to be gained from understanding better how
genetic processes work, but I think the engineering of new organisms by the
totally crude, shotgun and uncontrollable processes that we have so far is
a huge risk. No such engineered organisms should be allowed out of a
well-contained laboratory.

So, I’m not opposed to the continuation of that work within a contained
laboratory, with appropriate safeguards, for the production of proteins,
such as insulin, medicines. They don’t replicate themselves.

I’m not opposed to the creation of transient genetically engineered
microbes in a laboratory in order to do other things like diagnostic
probes. But I’m totally opposed to any release of those organisms into the
environment.

 ... {and _much_ more.  D.}

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sent to Positive Futures list by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
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