5-Animals: Mothers Against Genetic Engineering say No to GE milk

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TITLE:  New Zealand Mothers Say No to GE Milk
SOURCE: Mothers Against Genetic Engineering, New Zealand, Press Release
        http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/GE0303/S00031.htm
DATE:   Mar 20, 2003

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New Zealand Mothers Say No to GE Milk

Mothers Against Genetic Engineering in Food and the Environment (MAdGE)
today pushed ahead with their court case against Marian Hobbs (the
Minister for the Environment), the Environmental Risk Management
Authority (Erma) and AgResearch, New Zealand's largest publicly funded
Crown Research Institute.

At the high court today, by consent, timetabling orders were made for
filing of evidence in the judicial review proceedings by all parties and
a hearing date is likely to be set for the 9th of June.

AgResearch were granted a generic application to conduct experiments
inserting what in effect could be a smorgasbord of human, rat, mice, goat
and sheep genes into cows for the bulk production of milk and milk
proteins. Erma approved the application in September last year. MAdGE
opposed the application along with 855 others and appeared at the public
hearing before Erma in Hamilton in August last year. MAdGE subsequently
filed an application for a judicial review of Erma's decision in the
Auckland High Court on 15 January 2003.

"We are taking Erma to the high court for judicial review because the
process by which it allows GE experiments to go ahead is slack. If it is
to provide New Zealanders with any sort of real bio-security then there
needs to be some very real changes made. Erma has proved to be nothing
more than a toothless hound guarding a cowshed full of scientific cowboys
and ignorant politicians with more interest in their market share and
personal glory than the health and well being of the country." Alannah
Currie - MAdGE Founder