Environmental concerns with the development of herbicide-tolerant plants. Inheritance and stability of resistance to Bt in diamond black moth. Hama, H. et al., Applied Entomology and Zoology 27, 355-362, 1992. Given the enhanced risks of crop and trait dispersal in New Zealand, it is important to assess the risks for health should traits appear in edible plant varieties ingested by people or animals. The important principle here is that long term health risks have not been adequately assessed by the applicants.
Recent research suggests that health risks are greater than previously thought.
These risks arise in a number of ways. Given the huge complexity of genetic coding, even in very simple organisms such as bacteria, no one can possibly predict the effects of introducing new genes into any plant. Therefore there is no way of knowing the overall, long-term effect on health. However, cross-species transfers being made between unrelated species, such as the transfer of modified agrobacterium genes, viral genes, and antibiotic resistant genes made in the proposed trials, would not happen in nature and may create new toxins, diseases, and weaknesses. In this risky experiment, the general public will be the ultimate guinea-pig.