Sydney

New Zealand will go ahead with field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops, but will delay their commercial release until 2003 at the earliest, the government has announced.

The decision, which follows an intense national debate, is regarded as a victory by supporters of GM technology.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said on 30 October that the government would accept most of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, which this year completed an extensive investigation of the technology (see Nature 412, 569; 2001). She said that GM technology would have a “key role” in New Zealand's agriculture and in emerging industries.

Opponents of GM technology had campaigned vigorously, attracting as many as 20,000 people to demonstrations. The government also came under pressure from its own six Maori members of parliament and from the seven environmentalists who hold the balance of power.

The government says it will allow the rights and spiritual beliefs of the indigenous Maori, who comprise 15% of New Zealand's four-million population, to be represented in the approvals process for GM research.

Mita Ririnui, chair of the Labour Maori Caucus, is pleased about the inclusion of the Maori in the process. But he warns that they will oppose the use of transgenic technology. “To interfere with another life-form is disrespectful and another form of cultural arrogance,” he claims.

Research minister Pete Hodgson says the debate over GM crops has “changed New Zealand”, explaining that “Pakeha [non-Maori] and Maori started to understand different world views and scientists learned they cannot exercise vetoes over others”.

The government says that field trials of GM crops can begin once they have been approved under strict new rules. But there will be a two-year hold on the commercial release of genetically engineered products, with the exception of vaccines and drugs.