Gene editing

The much anticipated Gene Technology Bill has been introduced to parliament this week giving New Zealanders the first look at what the new regulations around genetic technologies such as gene editing and genetic modification could look like. In this episode hear from Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) science advisor Dr Emily Parker on the tiered, risk-based approach to regulating the technologies, including techniques that could be exempt from the regulations. Also hear from Dr Raj Bhula, the Gene Technology Regulator in Australia.

BVD is a significant problem in the dairy industry. In this episode we talk to the US-based scientist who carried out a world first by gene editing BVD resistance into a bovine embryo, cloning it and producing a live BVD resistant calf. Also hear more about LIC’s new partnership in an American gene editing project.

LIC is dipping its toe in the water with gene editing, collaborating offshore with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and gene technology company Acceligen in the United States to produce animals with gene edits that improve outcomes for cattle in Africa. Why, and what could this mean for New Zealand? Words Anne Lee

Could gene editing animals spell the end to costly, painful diseases? US scientists have used CRISPR and cloning to create an animal resistant to BVD.
Words Anne Lee

The Australian Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) will be used as the blueprint for New Zealand’s gene regulator, likely to be proposed in the bill to be introduced to Parliament later this year. Anne Lee looks across the Tasman at what the OGTR is and how it works.

In the third episode of our GE & GM discussion series, hear from two different sides of the debate, on what the risks are of introducing GE into our market, and how these risks could be managed and identified.
Hear from Jon Carapiet from GE Free New Zealand, and Dr Alec Foster from Scion Research.

The government has announced a bill will be introduced to parliament this year to change rules and regulations to genetic modification. Access to genetic modification technologies globally already exists, and in this episode we talk to chief executive of Grasslanz Technology John Caradus about what we can learn from overseas, to develop the best system for New Zealand and the work already underway to develop GE forages for farmers here.

With changes to gene editing regulations being signalled by the government, it’s time to have the conversation on why and how this would benefit New Zealand growers, and the general public.

But according to a survey 26% of growers don’t know how they feel about a change in regulations, which begs the question - are we having the right conversations about what gene editing means?

With increasing pressure on food production systems, New Zealand needs to find ways to move forward that are both sustainable and reliable. Words Liz Morley, Research First