Vandals destroy GE pine trees

Police are investigating the destruction of a field trial of genetically modified radiata pine trees after someone dug under a security fence and pulled the young trees from the ground.

The project, valued at around $400,000, was being conducted on a secure site at Scion's Rotorua campus and was attacked during the long Easter weekend.


Scion Chief Executive Dr Warren Parker describes it as a blatant act of vandalism designed to end Scion's genetic modification research programme.

'The field trial was approved under one of the strictest regulatory regimes in the world, and our team has fully complied with the containment controls. Despite this, our research opponents were determined to stop us and used criminal means to do so,” he says.

The field trial site contained 375 radiata pines trees planted last year following approval from ERMA (now the Environmental Protection Authority).

The one-hectare field trial site was secured by a double fence, one of which was electrified and monitored.

The offenders cut through the perimeter fence elsewhere on the campus, then dug under the security fencing and attacked the trees by cutting them at root level and pulling them out of the ground.

Most of the trees were less than one metre high, and were part of two experiments due to run for two to three years.

One was testing herbicide resistance and the other was looking at reproductive development. Not all the trees were genetically modified as the experiments included some control trees. The direct value of the destroyed material is around $400,000.

Warren says all risk management safety protocols were immediately implemented when the attack was discovered.

The site has been inspected by the Police and all fences repaired. Scion is confident that no material has left the site.

'As a Crown Research Institute, Scion has a responsibility to pursue areas of science and technology that offer opportunities for the forestry sector in New Zealand, including gene technologies. While this is a big blow to us and has set back our work some 12 months, we will not be deterred in carrying out our lawful research,” says Warren.

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2 comments

Rights or Wrongs

Posted on 13-04-2012 10:29 | By Fagin

What gives these morons the right to do these criminal acts ... we live in a free thinking country that allows all sorts of ideas to be thrown out into the public arena; you may not agree with some of the opinions that people have, but, why would they have to damage other people's property because they can't get their way?? I really hope that they all get prosecuted and made to pay for ALL the damage that they have caused, including having to re-start the trial.


Great ... !!!!

Posted on 13-04-2012 20:11 | By CJB666

This is great. The last thing 100% Pure New Zealand needs is GM / GE anything. As American farmers have found it is impossible to stop seeds from being dispersed to non-M crops. Then they get sued out-of-business for copyright infringement - FGS - by the biggest GM polluter on the planet - Monsanto. And in India thousands of farmers have committed suicide due to the GM-sterlised crops that they were forced to buy and plant without producing the promised crop yield. What next - GM-cloned dairy from China producing human mother's milk. Oh - they're already here.


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