The Greens used to have a section called The Wild Greens, who carried out attacks on stuff they disagree with.
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Now no one has claimed responsibility for the vandalism yet – which is not surprising, as they will presumably be arrested. But like with the stickers in the election, will there be links to the Green Party, and even the parliamentary wing?
Will the Greens come out and condemn this attack?
The Greens are not required to publicly condemn environmental activism just because a rightwing hack demands it and makes up some baseless accusations.
What people like David Farrar need to realise is there are many Kiwi's who will risk a criminal record to ensure New Zealand is protected from environmental terrorism, and the real criminality occurs when so-called scientists put New Zealand's productivity at risk.
Yesterday, Green MP Steffan Browning at frogblog reported:
The level of non-compliance and general slackness in the past included potted GE pine cuttings in the open developing pollen cones. This gave those following the ERMA hearing process, no confidence that pollen [contamination] wouldn’t happen again, especially when ERMA said that non-GE control trees within the site could produce pollen, and approval conditions would deal with the risk of GE pollen escape. That was exactly what they had said about the pollen risk from GE brassicas (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and kale) at that ERMA hearing only a few years before. Even while an appeal to the High Court was being heard against the GE brassica decision, the brassica scientist (a friend and colleague of the Scion GE crew) had her GE brassicas planted and flowering in the open, and I discovered a further open pollen event at her ‘secret’ site months later.
The risk to New Zealand's horticultural industry from slack GE trial controls cannot be overemphasized. In 2009, New Zealand had exports and domestic sales of $6 billion, making horticulture a top performer and crucial for our economic stability.
Allowing GE trials to put at risk this multi billion-dollar sector is highly negligent. Scientists are not the only ones to blame for the administrative lapses though, as it's ultimately the legislators that have failed, and this is where change needs to occur the most.
As a Member of Parliament, I cannot condone illegal activity, but as a participant in the Scion GE tree and Plant & Food Research GE brassica hearings, I know why activists can feel the need to overstep the badly managed processes and take the law into their own hands. Legislation is a better way of correcting GE in the environment of New Zealand, and the sooner a government does it the better.
Well that answers Farrars' baseless accusation then. The Green party were not involved in the justified vandalism of the GE pine trees. President of GE Free NZ, Claire Bleakley has also set the record straight.
They are however involved in trying to change the National party's pro GE legislation that has caused the conflict to occur in the first place, for which they should be commended.
