NOTE: The big ABIC pro-GM jamboree in Ireland this week didn't go entirely to plan. Two contributions in particular proved rather awkward for the organisers.

One came from Defra Chief Scientist, Prof. Bob Watson and the other from Prof. Dennis Murphy, who heads the biotechnology dept at the University of Glamorgan.

Prof. Murphy, despite being pro-GM, has an endearing habit of telling it like it is, and he apparently made statements to the conference such as: "nothing has happened in commercial biotech for 15 years... [we're] relying on 1st generation GM products which have under-performed... we must reduce our obsession with GM ...it will not feed the world, maybe a small section."

And here's a couple of extracts from the press coverage (item 1) of what Prof. Watson had to say:

"Watson believes the stance taken by GM companies is too positive... financially these crops are not as profitable as conventional crops.

He questioned whether the real reason that there is hunger in Africa is because they do not utilise GM. This, he said, was incorrect."

If such authoritative voices were embarrassingly off-message for the pro-GM hype-fest planned by the Irish/Canadian backers of the conference, then equally damaging for the pro-GM Irish government agencies who'd been drawn into backing it was the controversy that broke about their ears.

GM-free Ireland in comments below on a letter from the Canadian government bureaucrat Shane Morris, published in the Irish Examiner (item 3), note how when they organised a conference which raised concerns about GM, Morris successfully lobbied the one Irish government agency which offered any support to the event to withdraw it on the grounds that the conference did not accord with the then Irish Government's pro-GM policy. But seven Irish agenies happily backed the pro-GM ABIC conference even though the current Government's policy is to work for a GM-free island of Ireland.

And the Irish Green Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, has expressed its displeasure in no uncertain terms. Green Party Chairman, Senator Dan Boyle, declared that the involvement of state agencies in "an event that is unbalanced is wrong. The Programme for Government states quite emphatically that an all-island GM free zone is to be negotiated. This should inform the thinking of State agencies."

Senator Boyle also described the conference as "far from... intellectually honest" (item 2)
while another Green Party Senator was still more blunt, declaring the conference the state agencies were backing to be "just a propoganda exercise for the biotech multi-nationals" (item 5).

All the following items are taken from the excellent GM-free Ireland newspage
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

1.GM companies only talk of benefits
2.STATE AGENCIES MUST TAKE PART IN BALANCED DEBATE ON GM, WARNS BOYLE
3.Shane Morris letter
4.A host of reasons to ban GM wheat
5.We want GM debate instead of propaganda
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1.GM companies only talk of benefits

GM companies talk only of benefits, and anti-GM groups talk only of risks. This polarised position will not solve the main problem affecting food supply today, which is distribution.

This was the message from Professor Robert Watson, the Chief Scientific Adviser for the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Watson believes agriculture is no longer just about production, but must be viewed in terms of multifunctionality, such as its economic and social benefits - especially among small farm holders.

Watson believes the stance taken by GM companies is too positive, and that financially these crops are not as profitable as conventional crops.

He questioned whether the real reason that there is hunger in Africa is because they do not utilise GM. This, he said, was incorrect. The primary cause is post harvest losses, which were in the region of 30% to 40%. The problem of world hunger today is the distribution of food. He believes we need affordable food that is nutritious, environmentally friendly and sustainable for farmers and all stakeholders.

[Extract from article: ABIC conference: Science needs to meet growing food demand
By Darragh Mullin
Irish Farmers Journal, 30 August 2008]
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2.STATE AGENCIES MUST TAKE PART IN BALANCED DEBATE ON GM, WARNS BOYLE

Irish Green Party press release, 26 August 2008.

Green Party Chairman Senator Dan Boyle has said State agencies must take part in a balanced debate on the issue of genetically modified foods.

Speaking following the involvement of State Agencies in the ABIC 2008 conference on Biotechnology, which has an emphasis on GM, and is currently being held in University College Cork, Senator Boyle said: "While debate is always welcome and should be encouraged, the involvement of State agencies, particularly those with responsibility for food, in an event that is unbalanced is wrong. The Programme for Government states quite emphatically that an all-island GM free zone is to be negotiated. This should inform the thinking of State agencies.

"Having no input on the lack of consumer confidence, the risks of environmental cross contamination, and the dangers of market manipulation by GM companies at a conference of this nature is to leave aside an important part of this debate and is far from being intellectually honest. The State agencies concerned, especially Teagasc, should ensure that resources committed to conferences such as these correspond with the objectives in the Programme in Government."
[ENDS]
Information
Senator Dan Boyle: + 353 (0)87 277 2701
Nicola Cassidy, Press Office: + 353 (0)1 618 4088 / + 353 (0)87 914 8175
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3.Shane Morris letter

Ireland: Chef's attitude to State funding of biotech conference is hard to swallow
Irish Examiner (Letters), 29 August 2008

Chef Lorcan Cribbin's concerns about unbalanced Government funding of the UCC agriculture biotechnology conference (August 25) are hard to swallow as he expressed no concerns when the Government supported an unbalanced anti-GM food conference on June 16-18 at Kilkenny Castle, which the Government donated for free.

In addition, Mr Cribbin fails to mention that anti-GM speakers pulled out of a public debate planned in UCC preferring to appear at a political press conference organised by Kathy Sinnote [sic] MEP.

Those who attended this one-sided event witnessed misleading and incorrect information debunked by scientists [read: Shane Morris] who took the anti-GM food speakers to task. It's a pity the Irish Examiner didn't bother to send a journalist to cover the event but preferred to rely on that fine journalistic skill of 'cutting and pasting' from anti-GM press releases.

Shane Morris
Department of Biochemistry
University College Cork

Comment from GM-free Ireland:

We declined to participate in the above-mentioned debate which Morris tried to organise at the ABIC conference (under the aegis of the TCD Science Gallery), because of the absurdity of its title: "Future Food: Organic, Biotech or Both".

We did invite pro-GM Government ministers and scientists from the relevant semi-state bodies to speak at the Green Ireland conference on branding for food, farming and ecotourism which we organised at Kilkenny Castle in June 2006, but none came.

The only public funding pledged for that event was a token thousand euro sponsorship from Bord Bia, but Morris convinced them to withdraw it on the grounds that the conference theme was opposed to the then pro-GM government policy. Kilkenny Castle was provided to An Taisce, which co-hosted the event with GM-free Ireland. The conference proceedings are online at http://www.gmfreeireland.org/conference
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4.A host of reasons to ban GM wheat
Irish Farmers Journal, 28 August (dated 30 August) 2008

The ongoing scientific row over the use of GM wheat has now become a matter of canonical debate, according to my sources in the Irish Catholic. Apparently, the use of GM what in the manufacture of hosts for use in the Eucharist infringes Canon law 924, according to the leading Irish authority on such detail, Fr Sean McDonagh.
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5.We want GM debate instead of propaganda
Unpublished letter to the Editor of The Irish Times, dated 26 August 2008. 

An article in your paper (Aug 26th) reported that an international conference on agricultural biotechnology in Cork heard calls from representatives of Teagasc for a more "open, transparent and inclusive" debate on the merits on genetically modified foods.

As a Green Party public representative with a strong interest in the issue of GM, I would welcome such a debate. However, nothing I have read about the conference in Cork would suggest that the debate was inclusive or balanced.

In fact, Professor Patrick Cunningham, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government is reported to have spoken at the conference of the "urgency of the development and application of the technology on the one hand, and fear of change on the other".

In my opinion, Professor Cunningham does a great dis-service to those who continue to raise concerns about this relatively new, and as yet not fully understood technology. In fact, the urgency of which the professor speaks has been generated by large multi-national biotechnology companies who see enormous commercial opportunities in the immediate application of this technology, regardless of its prematurity.

Many of the risk assessments of new GM products have been carried out by these same biotech companies, and their findings largely accepted by regulatory bodies such as the European Food Safety Authority who currently lack the resources to carry out their own independent studies.

Proponents of GM also regularly make sweeping statements about the safety of these products as far as human health is concerned. Unfortunately they make these claims in the absence of any reliable body of longitudinal studies into the health effects of comsuming GM foods over a lifetime. A growing body of research does suggest that GM foods have very negative health impacts for human beings, including organ failure and allergic responses amongst others.

While it is extremely important that scientific progress is not inhibited, the danger of pushing GM technology on an unwilling public in the face of very real and legitimate concerns about its health and environmental impacts must be recognised.

We must have a full and open debate about the issue of GM in this country but please let it be balanced and not just a propoganda exercise for the biotech multi-nationals.

Yours etc
Senator Deirdre de Burca
Green Party Spokesperson on Health and Children