MONSANTO'S GM SOY AND ROUNDUP WEEDKILLER LINKED TO BIRTH DEFECTS AND CANCER

MEDIA RELEASE GM-FREE IRELAND, 30 SEPT 2010
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI51.pdf                          

*Scientists warn EU Parliament on dangers of GM animal feed
*Toxic herbicide routinely sprayed on Irish crops before harvest
*Consumers at risk from residues in food and feed
    
This media release can be downloaded at www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI51.pdf

OVERVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE:

*Peer-reviewed scientific paper by Prof. Andrés Carrasco et al on Roundup link to birth defects:
www.gmo-free-regions.org/fileadmin/files/gmo-free-regions/GMO-Free_Europe_2010/Carrasco_ChemResToxAug2010.pdf

*Report: GM soy: Sustainable? Responsible? ӬSummary of key points:
www.gmfreeireland.org/feed/GM-RR-SOY-FINALS/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_SUMMARY_ENG_v6.pdf

*Report: GM soy: Sustainable? Responsible?Ӭ Full text:
www.gmfreeireland.org/feed/GM-RR-SOY-FINALS/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_FULL_ENG_v9.pdf

*Report: GM soy: Sustainable? Responsible? ӬInterviews and photos of authors and victims:
www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12479%3Areports-reports

*Interview with lead author Prof. Carrasco by Michael O'Callaghan, Peter Melchett and others:
http://freiraumbureau.de/filesharing/2.mp3

DUBLIN, BRUSSELS and GENEVA - Monsanto's best-selling "Roundup" weedkiller is linked to human cell death, birth defects, cancer, miscarriages, and devastating environmental and social impacts in countries where it is sprayed on GM soy imported to the EU for animal feed, according to a report released by an international group of scientists at the European Parliament in Brussels on 16 September.  

The report warns that the toxic herbicide which Monsanto markets as biodegradable, environmentally friendly and safe to use around children and pets  - causes human cell death and malformations in frog and chicken embryos at far lower doses than those allowed in agriculture. Roundup can remain in the environment a year after it is sprayed, and contaminate the food chain with toxic residues.

Farmers and consumers of Irish food at risk

Irish farmers routinely spray Roundup on food and fodder crops before harvest, including cereals for bread and barley for whiskey and Guinness.  Local authorities and home gardeners use it to control weeds.

Roundup is also a pre-requisite for the production of more than 600,000 tonnes of genetically modified Roundup Ready (GM RR) soy that Ireland imports every year  as livestock feed for non-organic beef, pork, lamb, farmed fish, and dairy produce.

Ireland is the Northern hemisphere's biggest exporter of beef fed with GM RR soy, a major UK supplier of pigmeat fed on GM RR soy, and one of the world's biggest exporters of dairy produce from cows fed on GM RR soy, including infant formula.

Premature births, stillbirths, deformed babies, genetic damage and cancer

The report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?  highlights new research    by Argentine government scientist Prof Andrés Carrasco and colleagues, on the health impacts of Roundup's main active ingredient, glyphosate, and of other chemicals contained in the formulated herbicide and its breakdown products.

"The findings in the lab are compatible with malformations observed in humans exposed to glyphosate during pregnancy," said Carrasco. He added that his findings have serious implications for people because the experimental animals share similar developmental mechanisms with humans.

In an interview at the European Parliament, Prof. Carrasco said that childhood cancer increased by 300 per cent and babies with birth defects by 400 per cent during the past decade in parts of Argentina where GM Roundup Ready soy is grown to supply European farmers with cheap GM animal feed.

Prof. Carrasco is the Director of the University of Buenos Aires Medical School Laboratory of Molecular Embryology, and lead researcher at Argentina’s National Council of Scientific and Technical Research. His new research was published in the American Chemical Society’ journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

The GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? Report was compiled by Prof. Carrasco and an international coalition of scientists, and was published by the German bank GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG and the Austrian NGO ARGE Gentechnik-frei.

It provides a global overview of scientific papers and other documented reports on the devastating health, environmental, agronomic, economic and social impacts of GM soy production with Roundup herbicide. It is released with interviews and photos of Argentine villagers whose health has been wrecked by the cultivation of GM soy.

Doctors and residents of GM soy producing areas of Argentina and Paraguay began reporting serious health effects from glyphosate spraying in 2002, two years after the first big harvests of GM Roundup Ready soy. These include dramatic increases of birth defects, stillbirths, miscarriages and cancers. Scientific studies collected in the report also confirm links between glyphosate exposure and damage to DNA and reproductive organs.

Prof. Carrasco said, "I suspect the toxicity classification of glyphosate is too low ... in some cases this can be a powerful poison." Ӭ

Residents have also reported environmental impacts including damage to food crops and streams strewn with dead fish. The report confirms these accounts with scientific evidence of glyphosate's toxic effects on the environment.Ӭ Ӭ

The report raises serious "concerns about the clinical findings from human offspring in populations exposed to Roundup in agricultural fields." It finds that glyphosate-based herbicide formulations are endocrine disruptors (interfering with the functioning of hormones) and are toxic and lethal to human cells. In animals, they disturb hormone and enzyme function, affect the levels and functioning of multiple liver and intestinal enzymes, impede development, cause skeletal malformations and other birth defects, and are lethal to amphibians. Roundup damages human embryonic cells and placental cells in concentrations well below those recommended for agricultural use. The study's authors conclude that Roundup is highly toxic and may interfere with human reproduction and embryonic development.

Roundup use on GM crops

More than 95 per cent of global GM soy (and 75 per cent of other GM crops) are genetically modified to tolerate Roundup and similar glyphosate-based weedkillers. The modification allows the food crop to survive spraying with these herbicides which kill other crops and weeds. Monsanto owns the patents on 95% of all GM seeds and is also the leading manufacturer of glyphosate-based weedkiller.  

GM RR soy was first commercialised in the United States in 1996. GM RR varieties now make up over 90 per cent of soy cultivated in North America and Argentina and are widely used in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. GM soy is not approved for cultivation in the EU, but it continues to be imported as animal feed for cattle, sheep, pigs and farmed fish. The resulting food is sold without a GM label.

Contrary to the agribiotech industry myth that GM crops reduce the use of pesticides, Monsanto's own data shows that sales of Roundup have skyrocketed since GM RR crops were first introduced. For example, during the period 1996 to 2004 the volume of Roundup sales increased by 1,000 per cent in Argentina, a major supplier of GM RR soy to Irish farmers.

Maximum residue levels in food and feed increased to satisfy GM companies

In addition to glyphosate, Roundup contains a cocktail of other chemicals including POEA, a surfactant which is about 30 times more toxic to fish than glyphosate.  Soybeans have been found to contain glyphosate residues at levels up to 17mg/kg.  Glyphosate residues have also been found in strawberries,  lettuce, carrots, and barley planted on previously sprayed land. Some of these foods contain residues even when the crops were planted a year after glyphosate was applied to the soil.

When Roundup was first placed on the market, the EU increased the maximum permissible residue levels for glyphosate in food by 200%. Before GM Roundup Ready soy was approved for animal feed and food in the EU, the legal maximum residue limit (MRL) for glyphosate residues in soy was 0.1mg/kg. After GM soy was approved in 1996, the limit had to be raised to 20mg/kg to smooth the path for GM soy to enter the market. In a 1999 press interview, Sainsbury’s recently-retired head of food safety, Malcolm Kane, said the European Commission raised the residue level to "satisfy the GM companies".  

The EC does not permit this high residue limit for any other pesticide or produce. In general, maximum residue levels for pesticides in soybeans are between 0.01 and 0.1mg/kg.  Similarly, in Brazil in 2004, ANVISA, part of the Brazilian Government Ministry of Health, authorised a 50-fold increase in the MRL of glyphosate from 0.2 mg/kg to 10 mg/kg. No MRL has been set for glyphosate's main environmental breakdown product or metabolite, AMPA, which has also been found in soybeans at high levels of up to 25mg/kg.  Monsanto claims that AMPA has low toxicity to mammals and non-target organisms.  However, AMPA has been found to cause DNA damage in cells , and a study by the  Committee for Research and Independent Information on Genetic Engineering in France found that POEA and AMPA cause total human cell death within 24 hours at dilution levels far below those recommended for agricultural use and corresponding to low levels of residues found in food and feed.

Cover up, censorship and harassment of scientists

Like other scientific whistleblowers  who publish evidence of harm from GM food and farming, the lead author of the study, Prof. Andrés Carrasco, has been persecuted in Argentina. In August 2010, Amnesty International called for an investigation    into a violent organised mob attack on an audience who came to hear him present his findings. Prof. Carrasco had to lock himself inside a car pounded by hostile thugs for two hours; the attack resulted in cancellation of the event after three people were seriously injured.

The Round Table on Responsible Soy greenwash
The GM Soy: Sustainable Responsible? report presented at the European Parliament challenges commercial claims that GM soy cultivation is sustainable and that the glyphosate herbicide used on it is safe. In 2011 the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) will launch a voluntary "responsible” label to brand GM RR soy is  "sustainable” and "responsible”. The RTRS is funded by biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta; commodity traders ADM, Bunge, Cargill; agrofuel giants BP and Shell, and NGOs such as WWF and Solidaridad which have been widely criticised for their participation.

”¨Claire Robinson of GMWatch, a group that campaigns against GM foods and crops, said, "It is a cruel farce to call the GM soy with glyphosate farming model sustainable and responsible. The RTRS criteria don't protect people from the health hazards of GM soy and glyphosate shown in the new report."    

Over 200 civil society organisations have condemned the RTRS criteria as corporate greenwash.

GM disinformation and propaganda in Ireland

Prof. Paddy Cunningham, the Irish Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser is a biotech industry lobbyist. A year after the Irish Government first agreed its policy to negotiate to declare the Island of Ireland as a GMO-free zone  in 2008, Teagasc (the Agriculture and Food Authority), Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Marine Institute (Foras na Mara), the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, and Sustainable Energy Ireland co-funded an international GM propaganda conference organised by the Monsanto-backed ABIC Canadian industry group.  

Today, a year after the Government agreed its (not-yet-implemented) policy to ban GM crops and provide a voluntary GM-free label for food including animal produce made without GM feed,  Teagasc  continues to promote deregulation of GM animal feed    and promote GM propaganda and disinformation on its GMO-info website.

Other Irish advocates of GM food and farming include the Irish Council for Bioethics, university scientists at TCD, UCD, UCC, NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth who depend on agri-biotech industry funding. GM propaganda is also widely disseminated by the Irish Grain and Feed Association, the Irish Farmers Journal and the Irish Farmers Monthly (which both take advertising revenue from Monsanto and other GM companies), and by the Irish Farmers Association, whose County Managers accept Monsanto's invitations to the USA , and whose President John Bryan recently repeated Monsanto's big lie that GM crops “can be produced to have much greater yields with less sprays”.   

Time to ban GM RR feed and use of Roundup

Commenting on the GM soy: Sustainable? Responsible? report, Michael O’Callaghan of GM-free Ireland said, "It is now obvious that the European Commission must ban feed and food products made from GM crops, together with Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides. This will require consumer pressure on Member State governments and the EU Parliament, because the Commission still rubberstamps new GM seeds, feed and food based on positive opinions from the European Food Safety Authority, in spite of unanimous objection by the Council of Environment Ministers which in 2008 requested EFSA to stop accepting secret and scientifically unrigorous risk assessment data provided by the applicant companies, with no possibility of scientific peer review, in total violation of accepted scientific practice."
       
In his speech at the GMO-free Europe conference  at the EU Parliament on 16 September, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection John Dalli (who is an accountant with no knowledge of science) admitted that EFSA needs to be reformed, but still claimed that the EC's approval of new GMO products is "based on science.” O'Callaghan responded to Dalli by telling him his claim is "a total farce".

Yesterday, over a million EU citizens have signed a petition calling for a moratorium on GM crops and the setting up of an independent, ethical scientific body to research their impact and determine regulation.
 
GM-free Ireland urges consumers to demand a GM-free food chain, and advises farmers to support the Government's GM-free policy, stop using GM animal feed and Roundup herbicides, and demand implementation of the voluntary GM-free Irish label so as to retain their share of the rapidly growing EU and US markets for safe GM-free food.    
ENDS

CONTACT
 
Michael O'Callaghan, Founder and Acting Co-ordinator, GM-free Ireland Network
Now based in Geneva, Switzerland:
tel + 41 22 732 8685
mobile: + 41 948 5491  
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
web: www.gmfreeireland.org
facebook.com/GMfreeIreland

NOTES FOR EDITORS

  The GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? report was presented at the European Parliament on 16 September 2010 as part of the GMO-free Europe 2010 Conference. Proceedings, transcripts, papers, reports, video and audio interviews from this conference are available at:
www.gmo-free-regions.org/gmo-free-conference-2010.html

  See Monsanto's Roundup label: www.onlinegardeningcentre.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=ruc280ml

  Irish whiskey and Guinness are made from barley. It’s an open secret that Guinness advises Irish farmers who supply its barley to spray Roundup on their crop days before harvest to reduce its moisture level. This barley is thus virtually certain to be contaminated with residues of Roundup’s toxic chemicals and breakdown products. If Guinness (Ireland’s best-selling alcoholic beverage) contains such residues, the company which manufactures the product (Diageo) could be partially liable for the 20,000 new cases of cancer and over 7,500 cancer deaths which account for almost 25 per cent of annual deaths in Ireland. Drinkers may wish to boycott the brew until Guinness goes organic or independent scientists confirm the absence of Roundup residues at the very low levels that are now known to be toxic to humans.

  Source: Animal feedstuffs division, Irish Government Department of Agriculture and Food.

  This Irish animal produce is sold without a GM label to inform consumers. In 2007 a million EU citizens demanded mandatory labelling for meat, poultry, fish and dairy produce from animals fed with GM feed. On 5 February 2007, Greenpeace delivered a petition signed by over 1 million citizens of EU member states, demanding a mandatory GM label for meat, poultry and dairy produce to the European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Stavros Dimas:    www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/one-million-petition
 
The petition text says: “We demand mandatory labelling of animal products based on GMOs because of citizens' right to information, a fundamental right in the European Union.” Note: According to Article I-47(4) of the then proposed EU Constitution: “not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the Commission [...] to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Constitution”.

  Antoniou, M., Brack, P., Carrasco, A., Fagan, J., Habib, M., Kageyama, P., Leifert, C., Nodari, R., Pengue, W. 2010. GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? GLS Gemeinschaftsbank and ARGE Gentechnik-frei. Download from: www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12479:reports-reports

  Paganelli, A., Gnazzo, V., Acosta, H., López, S.L., Carrasco, A.E. 2010. Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signalling. Chem. Res. Toxicol., 9 August 2010: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx1001749

  Interview of Prof. Andrés Carrasco at the EU Parliament on 16 September 2010, by Michael O'Callaghan, Peter Melchett, Claire Robinson, Jochen Koester, and Christian Velot: audio MP3 file:
http://freiraumbureau.de/filesharing/2.mp3

  GM soy: Sustainable? Responsible?”¨Michael Antoniou, Paulo Brack, Andrés Carrasco, John Fagan, Mohamed Habib,  Paulo Kageyama, Carlo Leifert, Rubens Onofre Nodari, and Walter Pengue. Published by GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG and ARGE Gentechnik-frei, 16 September 2010.

    Full  text:
    www.gmfreeireland.org/feed/GM-RR-SOY-FINALS/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_FULL_ENG_v9.pdf

    Summary:
    www.gmfreeireland.org/feed/GM-RR-SOY-FINALS/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_SUMMARY_ENG_v6.pdf

Related resources including interviews, photos, and other language versions:
www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12479:reports-reports

  Interviews in English and Spanish and photographs available here: http://bit.ly/cLCZpD

  Benachour, N., Sipahutar, H., Moslemi, S., Gasnier, C., Travert, C., Séralini, G-E. 2007. Time- and dose-dependent effects of roundup on human embryonic and placental cells. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 53, 126 33.

  ETC Group, an international advocacy organization based in Canada, has been monitoring corporate power in the industrial life sciences for the past 30 years. In 2008 it published a 48-page communiqué entitled Who Owns Nature? Corporate Power and the Final Frontier in the Commodification of Life: www.etcgroup.org/upload/publication/707/01/etc_won_report_final_color.pdf

The ETC Group report's findings on seeds includes:

”¢    "In the first half of the 20th century, seeds were overwhelmingly in the hands of farmers and public-sector plant breeders. In the decades since then, Gene Giants have used intellectual property laws to commodify the world seed supply a strategy that aims to control plant germplasm and maximize profits by eliminating Farmers' Rights. Today, the proprietary seed market accounts for a staggering share of the world’s commercial seed supply. In less than three decades, a handful of multinational corporations have engineered a fast and furious corporate enclosure of the first link in the food chain. According to Context Network, the proprietary seed market (that is, brand-name seed that is subject to exclusive monopoly i.e., intellectual property), now accounts for 82% of the commercial seed market worldwide. In 2007, the global proprietary seed market was US$22,000 million. (The total commercial seed market was valued at $26,700 million in 2007 - see Olivier De Schutter,
“Building resilience: a human rights framework for world food and nutrition security,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, United Nations General Assembly, 8 September 2008.) The commercial seed market, of course, does not include farmer-saved seed.“

”¢    "10 companies now control more than two-thirds of global proprietary seed sales (down from thousands of seed companies and public breeding institutions three decades before). 82% of the global commercial seed market is proprietary, with only 18% non-proprietary. By 2007, institutional breeders held monopoly claims (plant variety protection) on over 72,000 plant varieties worldwide. The top 10 seed companies account for $14,785 million or two-thirds (67%) of the global  proprietary seed market.”

  Qaim, M. and G. Traxler, 2005. Roundup Ready soybeans in Argentina: Farm level and aggregate welfare effects. Agricultural Economics 32, 173 86.

  Servizi, J.A., Gordon, R.W., Martens, D.W., 1987. Acute toxicity of Garlon 4 and Roundup herbicides to salmon, Daphnia and trout. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 39, 15 22.

  FAO. 2005. Pesticide residues in food 2005. Report of the Joint Meeting of the FAO Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues in Food and the Environment and the WHO Core Assessment Group on Pesticide Residues, Geneva, Switzerland, 20 29 September. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper 183, 7.

  Cessna, A.J., Cain, N.P. 1992. Residues of glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA in strawberry fruit following spot and wiper applications. Can. J. Plant Sci. 72, 1359-1365.

  United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 1993. Glyphosate. R.E.D. Facts, EPA-738-F-93-011, EPA, Washington.

  Pesticide safety limit raised by 200 times 'to suit GM industry'. Daily Mail, September 21, 1999: www.connectotel.com/gmfood/dm210999.txt

  Sandermann, H. 2006. Plant biotechnology: Ecological Case Studies on Herbicide Resistance. Trends in Plant Science 11, 324 328.

  Monsanto. 2005. Backgrounder: Glyphosate and environmental fate studies.

  Mañas, F., Peralta, L., Raviolo, J., Garcia Ovando, H., Weyers, A., Ugnia, L., Gonzalez Cid, M., Larripa, I., Gorla, N. 2009. Genotoxicity of AMPA, the environmental metabolite of glyphosate, assessed by the Comet assay and cytogenetic tests. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 72, 834 837.

  Benachour, N., Séralini, G-E. 2009. Glyphosate formulations induce apoptosis and necrosis in human umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 22, 97 105.

  "Don't shoot scientific messengers": Early warning French Professor under severe attack by agro-biotechnology lobby. European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility, 10 May 2010: http://db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1273488183-SupportSeralini-PR-FSC-ENSSER.pdf

GM crops: Battlefield, Emily Waltz, Nature 461, 27-32 (2009) doi:10.1038/461027a, 2 September 2009: www.nature.com/news/2009/090902/full/461027a.html?s=news_rss

  Argentina: Threats deny community access to research, Amnesty International, 12 August 2010: www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR13/005/2010/en/303e9ee6-9138-405f-97fc-ed58965b76d0/amr130052010en.html

  Marks & Spencer. Tackling deforestation:
http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/sustainable-raw-materials/stories/86/

  The RTRS Standard can be downloaded from the RTRS website, http://www.responsiblesoy.org/. GM soy is treated the same as non-GM see p.i.

  www.gmwatch.org

  La Soja Mata (Soy Kills). Against “Responsible” GM soy: reply to Solidaridad, WWF. www.lasojamata.net/en/node/289

  GM Freeze. Thirteen Reasons Why the Roundtable On Responsible Soy Will Not Provide Responsible or Sustainable Soya Bean Production. May 2010.
www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/13_reasons_rtrs_final.pdf

  La Soja Mata (Soy Kills). Statements against the 3rd Round Table on Responsible Soy. http://lasojamata.iskra.net/node/110

  Prof Paddy Cunningham is a member of the biotech lobby group European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES), a task force of the European Federation of Biotechnology whose members comprise numerous biotech and pharmaceutical industry groups including Monsanto Europe, the Association of German Biotech Companies, the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (USA), etc. He is also a member of the Irish National Council on Bioethics, whose 2005 report "Genetically Modified Crops and Food: Threat or Opportunity for Ireland?" was a masterfully crafted work of biotech industry spin which concluded that "the genetic modification of crops is not morally objectionable". Cunningham is also the former Chairman of the EU Advisory Committee on the Future of Biotechnology, and a former member of the European Group on Life Sciences. He has also worked as a consultant for the US company Elanco (a division of the US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly and Co. that markets Monsanto's GM-produced Recombinant
Bovine Somatotrophin growth hormone Posilac, which is illegal in the EU. See Call for Chief Scientific Adviser to Resign: Cunningham exposed as biotech industry lobbyist, GM-free Ireland press release, 18 July 2008: www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI40.pdf

  In 2007 the Irish Government said it would “seek to negotiate to declare the island of Ireland as a GMO-free zone”, but there is no record of any such negotiations having taken place.

  The ABIC conference was organised by a Canadian Foundation with funding from Canadian Government, industry lobby groups, corporate agri-biotech giants Monsanto, BASF, Bayer CropScience, and BP Bio fuels, and the Gowlings law firm (which aided Monsanto’s GMO patent infringement lawsuit against the Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who lost ownership of his seeds and crops after being contaminated by Monsanto’s GM seeds. For details see Irish Government slammed for food conference, GM-free Ireland press release, 24 August 2008: www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI41.pdf

  In 2009, the Government published its Renewed GM-free policy which states: “We will declare the Republic of Ireland a GM-Free Zone, free from the cultivation of all GM plants.”To optimise Ireland’s competitive advantage as a GM-Free country, we will introduce a voluntary GM-Free logo for use in all relevant product labelling and advertising, similar to a scheme recently introduced in Germany.”    
(www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_2009/Renewed_Programme_for_Government,_October_2009.pdf) But as of 30 September 2010, the Government has not imlemented any related legislation.
   Teagasc (www.teagasc.ie) has spent tens of millions of Euro of Irish taxpayer funds to research, develop and promote GM crop and GM animal feed. In 2008, Teagasc director Prof Gerry Boyle made the astounding claim that the record of GM crops internationally has been "very good" - completely ignoring the scientific evidence of health dangers, reduced yields, GM superweeds, crop failures, widespread contamination, patent infringment lawsuits, billion-dollar food industry losses, EU market rejection and loss of biodiversity.

Teagasc’s head of biotechnology, Prof Jimmy Burke also claims that GM foods have higher yields and "are safe", that confidence should be taken from the fact that “public health is protected by a very vigorous approval system”¦ ”¨We now know from 30 years of international research and development that modern plants and food produced using biotechnology are safe" (quoted in “Ireland: Calls for laws to prevent release of GM crops here”,”¨”¨Irish Examiner, 26 August 2008.)

  Teagasc continues to use disinformation and scaremongering to convince farmers and government policy makers that GM feed imports must be deregulated by scrapping the EU’s zero tolerance food safety policy to prevent contamination of the food chain with illegal GMOs, in order for the Irish livestock industry to survive. One of its reports claims “It is highly unlikely that the Irish pig industry could survive in a GM-free Ireland in the absence of a premium being paid for GM-free pig-meat. The history of recovering such premiums from the market place has not been a positive one” even though the economic viability of GM-free pig production has been a great success for years in 51 EU Regions where it has been adopted as part of their Quality Agriculture Strategies. For details see proceedings of the 3rd International Conference / Business Meeting on GM-free soy, organized by the European GMO-free Regions Network in Brussels on 3-4 February 2010:
http://www.gmofree-euregions.net:8080/servlet/ae5Ogm?&cms=admin&id_cms_doc=95

See also the European GMO-free Regions Network Declaration on Labels and GM-free Farming Ӣ 5 February 2010: www.gmfreeireland.org/downloads/EU-GMO-Free-Regions-Declaration-5March2010.pdf

  Teagasc’s so-called “Information Centre for Genetically Modified (GM) Crops in Ireland” web site at www.gmoinfo.ie is so much in favour of GM food and farming that it fails to mention the government’s two-year-old policy to ban GM crops! (accessed 30 September 2010). The website includes an entire section provided by GMO Compass which is run by a German company (Genius) whose clients include the American Soybean Association, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, and the EuropaBio industry lobby group. The GMO info web site is co-funded by Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture and Food, and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency!

  In 2005, with the Manager of Monsanto Ireland in attendance, the National Council for Bioethics (chaired by former Attorney General and Irish Independent director Dermott Gleeson) published a masterfully crafted work of biotech industry spin entitled "Genetically Modified Crops and Food: Threat or Opportunity for Ireland?", which concluded that "the genetic modification of crops is not morally objectionable".

  “The IFA [Irish Farmers Association] county chairmen travelled to St. Louis, Missouri, with Monsanto's Patrick O'Reilly, to see the company's highly impressive research and development facility at Chesterfield.” Monsanto research impresses, Irish Farmers Journal, 11 October 2008.

  IFA President John Bryan interview by Margaret Donnelly, Farming to the Fore, Irish Farmers Monthly, Sept 2010 (page 12): www.irishfarmersmonthly.com/Links/PDF's/OldIssues/IFM_Sept_10.pdf

  No GM crop currently on the market is designed to have higher yields. GM herbicide-resistant crops drive higher use of weedkillers, while GM Bt crops turn every cell of the crop into a pesticide factory.

  Ten crucial elements in the environmental risk assessment of genetically engineered plants, Testbiotech Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology, September 2010:
www.testbiotech.de/sites/default/files/Ten_crucial_elements_in_ ERA_Testbiotech_1.pdf

  Formal Protest from Scientists: Commission Regulation on Implementing Rules for GM applications and assessments. Open letter to President Jerzy Buzek President of the European Parliament, 23 February 2010: www.gmfreecymru.org/open_letters/Open_letter23Feb2010.html

  Urgent Scientific and Policy concerns about the new Draft GMO Regulation. Open letter to John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, 27  February 2010: www.gmfreecymru.org/open_letters/Open_letter28Feb2010.html

  The “GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?” report was presented at the European Parliament on 16 September 2010 as part of the GMO-free Europe 2010 Conference. Proceedings will soon be available at:
www.gmo-free-regions.org/gmo-free-conference-2010.html

  Commissioner Dalli admits EU food safety regime must change. GM Watch, 16 September 2010: www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12493:commissioner-dalli-admits-eu-food-safety-regime-must-change

  The petition secured 1,014,910 signatures on 29 September 2010. The goal is to reach 1.5 million signatures. Please sign the petition at www.avaaz.org/en/eu_gmo

  See GM-free Irish label good for business: Added value, increased market share, better branding and unique selling point: the most credible GM-free food brand in Europe. GM-free Ireland Network press release, 17 November 2009:  www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI46.pdf

See also: GM-free production: a unique selling point for Ireland - the food island. 47-page briefing with GM-free market survey, 17 Nov. 2009 (1.2MB pdf): www.gmfreeireland.org/GMFI-briefing-3.pdf