Mother of Invention

Age feature charts former Thompson Twin Alannah Currie’s career trajectory from 80s popstar to the face of MadGE (Mothers Against Genetic Engineering) – NZ’s most visible opponent of genetically modified crops. Currie is credited with making the anti-GM movement fashionable, using celebrities, ironic humour, and eye-catching art-work to bring the issue to media attention. The government’s recent lifting of a moratorium on GM field trials has done nothing to stem Currie’s passion for the cause: “If it’s down to me, we have to get a lot more radical than before. We’re going to pull crops out and there will be loads of other people with us. If there’s loads of us, how can they arrest all of us … I can only get a lot worse.” Currie has left MadGE in the time since the interview. Says Susie Lees of GE-Free NZ in Food and Environment, “We appreciate everything she has done and will be sorry to see her go.”