New Zealand will end up uncompetitive if it does not adopt gene editing while the rest of the world moves ahead, says Dr William Rolleston, chair of Genomics Aotearoa and president of the Life Science Network.

He says gene editing is becoming a basic tool of plant breeding, and New Zealand is now one of four countries, along with Bolivia, Mexico, and Peru, yet to liberalise its rules.

“I’ve described ourselves as sitting in the global dunce’s chair, because we’re actually way behind everybody else.”

Rolleston says Europe’s move two weeks ago to deregulate gene editing in plants has changed the game, removing one of the main barriers to reform here.

“Europe’s gone a long way ahead of us.”

The technology is not banned in New Zealand, but the rules amount to an effective moratorium, he says.

“It’s not banned, but the regulations are so difficult and so expensive that people just can’t move forward.”

The bill that would change those rules was introduced to Parliament at the end of 2024 and passed its first reading before a select committee process that finished at the end of October. New Zealand First then said it wanted the bill further revised, and it has now gone back to the government.

He says the revision is not about watering it down.

“The risk is that there’ll be so many rules that it makes it impossible to do, that farmers won’t have the ability to use those technologies.”

Heavy regulation would run counter to a government wanting to cut red tape.

“We’ll be inviting bureaucrats with white coats and clipboards to be marching across our farms, measuring distances between crops.”

He gives examples of three technologies going on already: a gene drive to eliminate possums, high-tannin clovers that carry more protein while cutting greenhouse gases and nitrogen entering waterways, and a sterile Douglas fir developed to reduce the threat of wilding pines.

“We’ve got a perverse system at the moment, and what we need is a system that’s risk proportionate.

“This is a revolution that’s just hitting us like a freight train, and if we’re not on board, we’re just gonna be left completely behind.”

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