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Speaker 1: There are concerns this morning about regulations of genetically modified foods.

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Speaker 1: Minister for Food Safety Andrew Hoggart has quietly greenlit new

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Speaker 1: rules set by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. The

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Speaker 1: changes have been genetically modified food without foreign DNA would

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Speaker 1: no longer need to be labeled as genetically modified in supermarkets.

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Speaker 1: John krapiit is GE free New Zealand with us this morning, John,

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Hello. What's wrong with that?

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Speaker 2: Well, the main problem is that the deal in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand has always been that whether you can support GMOs

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Speaker 2: or don't support GMOs, there'd be a right to choose,

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Speaker 2: so there'll be disclosure in the supermarkets. And we haven't

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Speaker 2: actually had many GMOs in New Zealand. There's some imported,

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Speaker 2: many imported as processed oils and other ingredients, but nothing

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand has grown. That's g of GE. That's

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Speaker 2: about to change potentially with the Gas Technology Bill going

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Speaker 2: through Parliament separately. But what has happened yesterday or a

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Speaker 2: couple of days ago, is that after many years of

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Speaker 2: consulting with the public saying do you want do you

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Speaker 2: really want to know? Is a GMO? The answer was

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Speaker 2: yes from the public submissions to the food authorities, but

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Speaker 2: they completely ignored the public. They said that labeling was

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Speaker 2: out of scope and there isn't going to be any

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Speaker 2: and that decision is based as you said, it's based

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Speaker 2: on if there's no foreign DNA, it's been ging edited,

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Speaker 2: but it's not going to be labeled. And that's a furfe,

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Speaker 2: a scientific fur fee, obviously in the interests of industry,

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Speaker 2: because the real reason why there's not been many GMOs

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Speaker 2: in New zealm And it's not because they've been a ban,

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Speaker 2: because there hasn't been a ban, but really the market

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Speaker 2: has said they don't want it, both locally and globally.

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Speaker 2: So to jack it up, to jack up the market,

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Speaker 2: to have like essentially set up market failure by you're

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Speaker 2: not going to have a choice. That's really wrong and

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Speaker 2: that's why it's really bad that the ministers signed their

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Speaker 2: off with the Australian ministers to say you're not going

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Speaker 2: to have a choice.

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Speaker 1: John Food Standards Australia, New Zealand. They say, actually, this

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Speaker 1: is going to provide more clarity for consumers, for your

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Speaker 1: customers that the definition change they're talking about is focusing

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Speaker 1: on the change that's been made rather than the process

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Speaker 1: used to make the change.

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Speaker 2: That's right, and as I say, that's for scientific and

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Speaker 2: consumer furthy, because consumers care about how things are made.

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Speaker 2: I mean, if you think about like a free range

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Speaker 2: often there's not a big difference in the product, but

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Speaker 2: the way the animal was run, the way it was raised,

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Speaker 2: is important for consumers. And so whether it's a safety

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Speaker 2: issue or not, it is a safety issue, by the way,

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Speaker 2: and I'll explain that shortly, but whether it's a safety

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Speaker 2: issue or not, the risk should not be transferred onto

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Speaker 2: the consumer because they don't know it's GMO. And to

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Speaker 2: take away that labeling is really, as I say, it

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Speaker 2: completely overturns the social contract because the risk has always

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Speaker 2: been left with the public. But the labeling and the

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Speaker 2: chaceability and the testing of these products was like the

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Speaker 2: counter to that bill takes away chaseability. There is no

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Speaker 2: labeling and there's no pretesting, and that's where the Achilles

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Speaker 2: heel of the food safety comes in, right, because if

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Speaker 2: you don't check what you've done, it doesn't have to

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Speaker 2: have foreign DNA to have unexpected changes through gene editing,

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Speaker 2: and n's why the charge should be there.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I appreciate you coming on the show. That bell

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Speaker 1: that you're talking about obviously hasn't been through yet, but

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Speaker 1: we were talking about changes that were announced yesterday by

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Speaker 1: Food Safety by the Andrew Hoggart, who's the Food Minister.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it had been from five

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