'Illegal' School Science Kits
1 May 2015
The Dominion Post recently ran an article about “Glowing GE bacteria” which were “produced illegally in New Zealand using mail-order kits from America”. Perhaps unsurprisingly given that the phrase 'genetically engineered' was mentioned, Green MP Stefan Browning and GE Free New Zealand spokesperson Jon Carapiet chimed in to share their dismay that people/kids were fiddling with complex natural systems and things that posed a threat to our GE-free status (which we aren't). I'm paraphrasing here, but I think that was the sum of it. The usual GE = evil sort of stuff. Let's look at what happened and if it posed any risk to anyone.