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Speaker 1: Science Minister Judith Collins is letting GE out of the lab.

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Speaker 1: She's vowed that the ban on GE is going to

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Speaker 1: be lifted by the end of next year. Richard Scott

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Speaker 1: is ad Research Science team leader and with us. Now, hey, Richard,

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Speaker 1: hi there, How do you feel about this.

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Speaker 2: Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this new legislation,

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Speaker 2: comes out of these changes, right?

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Speaker 1: What do you think there's going to be some devil

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Speaker 1: in the detail?

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's exactly what I think there's But look at

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Speaker 2: going by what's out there at the moment, it's going

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Speaker 2: to be good for science. It's going to allow science

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Speaker 2: and the laboratory to progress a lot faster, and then

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Speaker 2: in the next steps maybe take it out of the laboratory.

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Speaker 2: We're going to be able to probably have less well

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Speaker 2: happily have less paper and that sort of thing to

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Speaker 2: run through.

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Speaker 1: Are you working on stuff that you want to be

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Speaker 1: able to get out there and out of the lab?

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Speaker 2: Yes. Tech Research has got at least three pro gigs

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Speaker 2: that we're working on in terms of genetically modifying that

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Speaker 2: are for farming, and we've already put forward an application

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Speaker 2: to trial that in New Zealand. That's been looking at

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Speaker 2: the moment, and we've got another couple that are lined

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Speaker 2: up ready to go.

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Speaker 1: Oh this is like the white clover. Yeah, that the

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Speaker 1: animals can eat and then they fart less.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the ones we've got. Yes, we've

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Speaker 2: got that one that's for animal health and less migain.

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Speaker 2: We've got another one for rye grass, which is another

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Speaker 2: common grass which is the main grass ground in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand with increased energy. And then we've got gen edited

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Speaker 2: indo fits, which are I've fung you that live within

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Speaker 2: grasses are symbiotic, and so looking at editing then for

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Speaker 2: less impact on animal health but better protection against them.

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Speaker 1: Are you surprised, Richard, Like, if you cast your mind

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Speaker 1: back to how we collectively lost our minds in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and two about corn gate, are you surprised that

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Speaker 1: people are pretty chill about it in twenty twenty four?

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Speaker 2: No, I don't, not really. I think there's enough evidence

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Speaker 2: coming out now from overseas and that it's not the

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Speaker 2: big evil thing that everybody made it where everybody thought

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Speaker 2: it might be. The evidence that's coming out from it

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Speaker 2: being grown widely in many countries.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I take that point, but why is it

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Speaker 1: that in two thousand and two, other countries were able

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Speaker 1: to deal with it in a mature way, and we

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Speaker 1: freaked out.

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I think a lot of it is

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Speaker 2: around New Zealanders. I can'tunderstand it, the perception of it

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Speaker 2: and a unique country and being very pretictive of it.

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Speaker 2: So I could see that would be a very strong.

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Speaker 1: And to our in our defense, I suppose we do

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Speaker 1: like our things. We like whole food and natural stuff,

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Speaker 1: so maybe it's in our blood to just not wuck

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Speaker 1: around with stuff too much. But Richard, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Best luck with those projects. They sound cool. That's Richard

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Speaker 1: Scott ag research science team leader. For more from Hither

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Speaker 1: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio