http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php
Please note that the scientist promoting the most dramatic headlines out of the conference - the ones about GM being 'vital' to meeting the world's food needs, is Dr Charles Spillane of University College Cork. He runs the GM lab that the controversial Canadian Government bureaucrat, Shane Morris, joined at the height of the 'wormy corn' scandal.
Spillane has subsequently published a paper with Morris attacking EU regulation of GM. Morris continues, while at University College Cork with Spillane, to be employed by the Canadian government, which is strongly represented at this conference. The organisers of this pro-GM conference are based in Canada.
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Ireland: Calls for laws to prevent release of GM crops here
By Ray Ryan, Agribusiness Correspondent
The Irish Examiner, 26 August 2008
THE Government has been urged to implement legislation to prevent the release of genetically modified (GM) crops on this island.
It has also been urged to protect Ireland's reputation by promoting the use of certified non-GMO (genetically modified organism) animal feed in the production of meat, poultry and dairy produce.
The calls were made by European Parliament member Kathy Sinnott and GM-free Ireland's Michael O'Callaghan.
They made the calls as more than 400 international delegates attended the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference in University College Cork.
Opponents of GM crops, who staged a protest outside the opening session of the conference, said no long-term health studies justify the claims that GM food and animal feed are safe.
Ms Sinnott said the European Parliament supports the right of member states to ban GM crops as there is no market for GM food in Europe.
Lorcan Cribbin, commissioner general of Euro-Toques Ireland, said GM crops are grown on 0.02% of EU arable land, and are rejected by the majority of EU food brands, retailers and consumers.
In Ireland, 77% of consumers oppose the introduction of GM crops and 71% refuse to eat food containing GM ingredients under any circumstances, he said.
However, the conference chairman, Professor Jimmy Burke of Teagasc, said the science of biotechnology is good for society and the agricultural industry. 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," he said.
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Ireland: GM crops essential to boosting production
By Caitriona Murphy
The Irish Independent, 26 August 2008
Biotechnologies such as GM crops are necessary to double global food production by 2050, a major biotechnology conference has been told.
By 2020, global agriculture will need to produce 36pc more food with less water, less fertiliser and less chemicals. A shortage of available land and more extreme weather patterns will also hit output, delegates at the conference in Cork were told.
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Ireland: GM 'vital' to meeting the world's food needs
By Caitriona Murphy
The Irish Independent (Farming supplement), 26 August 2008.
Biotechnologies such as GM crops are necessary to double global food production by 2050, a major biotechnology conference has been told.
By 2020, global agriculture will need to produce 36pc more food with less water, less fertiliser and less chemicals, only a small increase in land and more extreme weather patterns, delegates at the ABIC 2008 conference in Cork were told.
Dr Charles Spillane of University College Cork said global food production was not on target and every available technology, including GM and other biotechnologies, would need to be harnessed if we were to even approach such figures.
Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle said the best position regarding GM for Ireland was a politically sensitive one.
"It is not Teagasc's role to get involved in the politics of GM but to research the technology, evaluate its use in other countries and determine the benefits and faults of adopting GM technology," he said.
He added that biotechnology raised questions of enormous public interest, including the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production and their effects on the environment, but their record internationally was very good.
Professor Jimmy Burke said that 30 years of international research and development had shown that producing plants and food using biotechnology was safe.
Better yields
He added that technology that imparted resistance to herbicides and insect attack were providing cost and yield improvements and giving a competitive advantage to those using it.
If Irish cereal farmers were to hold onto their record as the most productive in the world, they must be able to use the most appropriate and competitive technology in the future, he told the conference.
The four-day Teagasc-hosted conference entitled "Agricultural biotechnology for a competitive and sustainable future" began on Sunday and continues until tomorrow.
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Ireland: Chefs accuse Government of double standards over GM food conference
By Dan Buckley
Irish Examiner, 25 August 2008
A GOVERNMENT-sponsored conference on agricultural biotechnology opened at University College Cork amid protests by leading chefs at what they see as the promotion of genetically modified foods. The conference on agricultural biotechnology was opened by Billy Kelleher TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The chefs' organisation, Euro-Toques Ireland, accused the Government of providing a platform for the promoters of GM food technology
"The Government has made no effort to hold an open debate on this issue," said Lorcan Cribbin, commissioner general of Euro-Toques Ireland and head chef of Dublin's Bang Cafe.
"Now it is providing a platform for promoters of the technology. Why is taxpayers' money being used to fund the promotion of technologies which consumers reject and which is acknowledged by the programme for Government as being bad for Ireland?"
Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, is the main sponsor of the event. Other sponsors include Enterprise Ireland and the Food Safety Authority, along with biotech firms such as Monsanto.
"GM technology hands over control of our food chain to huge corporations who care only for profit," said Mr Cribbin.
However, Dr Charles Spillane, head of the Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory at UCC and chairman of the ABIC Programme Committee, said new technologies were needed to produce enough food to feed the world's population.
"The neglect of agricultural research and development &investment... over the past two decades has led to a situation where our ability to produce sufficient food to feed the world's population is now in growing doubt," he said.
"By 2020 we will need to produce 36% more food with less water, less fertiliser, less chemicals, not much more land and more extreme weather patterns. We are not on target, and will need to harness every available technology, including GM and other biotechnologies, if we are to even approach such food production targets."
Conference chairman Prof Jimmy Burke, head of Teagasc Oak Park, said the gathering would offer a great platform to showcase Ireland's growing life sciences industries. "Various technology foresight reports for Ireland have identified biotechnology as one of the core technologies which our country and Irish industry must now embrace.
"These reports have also identified the agri-food sector as one that can benefit significantly from the tremendous potential offered by modern developments in biotechnology."
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Ireland: Conference opens amid controversy
By Ray Ryan, Agribusiness Correspondent
The Irish Examiner, 25 August 2008
An international conference on agricutural biotechnology was officially opened at University College Cork last night, as controversy raged over genetically modified crops.
Overe 450 delegates, including leading scientists from around the world, are attending the four-day event.
Conference chairman, Professor Jimmy Burke of Tegasc [Ireland's Food and Agriculture Authority], which is the primary sponsor of the event, said various national reports have rightly identified biotechnology as one of the core technologies which Ireland and Irish industry must now embrace.
He said the science of biotechnology is good for socieety and the agricultural industry, and confidence should be taken from the fact that public health is protected by a very rigorous approval system. Prof Burke said foods containing genetically modified ingredients are already on our supermarket shelves, and livestock here are being fed geneticaly modified feeds.
"We know now from 30 years of international research and development that modern plants and food developed through biotechnology are safe," he said.
But opponents of genetically modified crops say no long-term health studies prove that GM food and animal feed are safe. Marco Contiero, who heads Greenpeace International's GM campaign, said it was real shame public Irish money was used to finance this "one-sided conference' organised by the agri-biotech industry to promote its products.
"Instead of supporting these vested interests, the Irish Government should seriously address the health and environmental risks posed by GM crops, debate the scientific challenges behind such a risky technology, and discuss the social and economic impacts that its endorsement can have."
GM-free Ireland Network said the Agriculural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) is organised by a Canadian foundation with funding from the Canadian Government, industry lobby groups, corporate agri-biotech giants Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, and BP Bio Fuels, and the Gowlings law firm.
It criticised the Government for funding the conference through Teagasc, Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Marine Institute, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, and Sustainable Energy Ireland, and for providing a platform for "promoters of a technology which consumers reject".
GM-free Ireland's Michael O'Callaghan said the Government is abusing public money to sabotage its own agreed policy to keep the whole island of Ireland off-limits to GM crops.
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Ireland: Conference not promoting GM products, Teagasc insists
The Irish Times, 25 August 2008. By Sean McConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.TEAGASC HAS rejected claims from the anti-GMO lobby that a world conference it is hosting in Cork this week has the purpose of promoting genetically modified crop and animal production.
A spokesman for Teagasc said the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference being held in UCC this week had only a relatively small element dealing with GMO production.
Teagasc is the State advisory and research body on agriculture.
"This conference which is being attended by over 450 of the world's top scientists is about deepening our understanding of DNA ”š it is not about promoting GMO production," the spokesman said.
He said those who regularly criticise Teagasc neglect to mention the amount of research and work being carried out and money spent in the organic and conventional food production areas.
Criticism of the conference came in the first instance from Lorcan Cribbin, commissioner-general of chefs' body Euro-toques Ireland and head chef of Dublin's Bang CafÈ. Yesterday, Michael O'Callaghan of GM-free Ireland said the Government was abusing funds to sabotage its own agreed policy to keep the whole island of Ireland off-limits to GM crops.
Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth said: "This Irish Government promotion of agri- biotech industry interests is a scandal," and US film director Deborah Koons Garcia, who wrote and directed The Future of Food, described it as "outrageous".
Celebrity chef Darina Allen said Slow Food Ireland was opposed to the genetic modification of food.
Marco Contiero, who heads Greenpeace International's GM campaign, said it was a shame that public money was used to finance this one-sided conference "organised by the agri-biotech industry to promote its products".
"I would be concerned if, as has been represented to me, ABIC 2008 is a one-sided promotional exercise and does not involve the kind of balance one would expect in a scientific forum ”š especially when taxpayers' money is involved," said a statement quoting Senator David Norris.
At a press conference yesterday, Kathy Sinnott MEP and Mr O'Callaghan requested the Government to fund an independent conference on GM-free food and farming, to implement legislation to prevent release of GM crops, and to protect Ireland's reputation by promoting use of certified non-GMO feed in production of meat, poultry and dairy produce.
The ABIC 2008 conference, in UCC from August 24th to 27th, is entitled Agricultural Biotechnology for a Competitive and Sustainable Future.
Prof Jimmy Burke of Teagasc, chairing the conference, told the opening session: "Various national reports have rightly identified biotechnology as one of the core technologies which Ireland and Irish industry must now embrace. The science of biotechnology is good for society and the agricultural industry and we should take confidence from the fact that public health is protected by a very rigorous approval system."
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Ireland: GM industry will not solve world's food problems
Irish Examiner (Letters), 25 August 2008
FINE GAEL agriculture and food spokesman Michael Creed claims that Prince Charles's warning of the perils of GM food is "scaremongering" and "unhelpful to the GM debate".
But are his claims of jobs losses helpful and not just scaremongering? A naive faith in technological magic bullets is just as irrational as opposing GM simply because it is unnatural, not that the prince takes such a simplistic view.
It is ingenuous to believe the advertising of agro-chemical companies. They are not humanitarian organisations - they are in business to make money.
Pesticide-resistant GM crops were developed to sell more pesticides, resulting in greater applications and higher residues which may be injurious to health.
The manufacturers' claim that this will reduce pesticide application is nonsense. Would they want to put themselves out of business?
GM 'suicide seeds' prevent farmers from saving seed for the next year, forcing them to buy more GM seed which they cannot afford. We even have the situation in America where the GM industry has successfully sued farmers whose crops have been infected. Poverty is a root cause of famine, but people who are too poor to buy food will not be helped by GM.
Small farmers are being displaced from the land by big business. Destructive agricultural policies are dictated by the World Bank and politicians who are incompetent or corrupt.
Famine is also caused by war, drought, floods, loss of topsoil, climate change and salination. To ignore all this, allowing people to starve, in the belief that GM will solve the world's food problem is stupid and pernicious.
There is easily enough arable land in the world to feed everyone; it just needs the political will to manage it properly.
GM businesses seek to monopolise the food chain, reducing the number of varieties, replacing traditional crops and holding farmers to ransom. Inevitably this will increase vulnerability to new pests and disease. Pesticide-resistant weeds are already evolving.
It is a myth that GM is a process similar to selective breeding by man or nature.
Genes from one species are removed from the nucleus and spliced onto the genes of another species. A gene from a glow-worm could not end up as part of the maize genome by any natural process. This is why GM foods have been dubbed 'Frankenstein' foods.
We have already caused untold harm to the environment with extinctions, habitat destruction, introduction of alien species, pollution, global warming, the overuse of biocides and ill-conceived agriculture. Will we never learn?
There is no evidence that GM yields are higher. People don't want GM foods, nor are they necessary. However the GM industry in America wants, and has gotten, secrecy, so we have no choice. Furthermore, their food disparagement laws make criticism illegal
There are many biochemists and other experts who consider GM to be dangerous and unnecessary, but because funding from research comes from the GM industry, their views are marginalised.
We know what is safe to eat from thousands of years of experience.
By allowing GM we risk opening a Pandora's Box.
Michael Job
Rossnagrena
Glengarriff
Co Cork