Seeds of distrust

by Nicky Hager

In November 2000 - in the middle of the Royal Commission on genetic engineering - the Government learned that a shipment of GE contaminated sweet corn seeds had been planted in three regions of New Zealand. Imposing strict secrecy, Prime Minister Helen Clark took control of the issue and said that the crops must be pulled out. Then the big business lobbying began. Over the following weeks, the pulling up was replaced by a cover-up. Helen Clark's Government did a U-turn: the contaminated crops, including thousands of GE sweet corn plants, were allowed to spread their pollen and then be harvested for sale in New Zealand and overseas. The rest of the known contaminated seed batch was approved for planting. The public was not told. The Government misled the Royal Commission members about the incident to stop it influencing their findings. It is a story about the anti-democratic influence of big business, political expediency, abuse of power, manipulation of the news media and misleading a