Teagasc expert calls for more open debate on GM foods

IRELAND NEEDS to have a more “open, transparent and inclusive” debate on the merits of genetically modified foods, an international conference in Cork on agricultural biotechnology heard yesterday.

Prof Jimmy Burke from Teagasc, the State advisory and research body on agriculture, told 450 conference delegates at University College Cork (UCC) that the science of biotechnology was good for society and the agricultural industry.

He insisted we should take confidence from the fact that public health was protected by a very rigorous approval system.

“We now know from 30 years of international research and development that modern plants and food produced using biotechnology are safe. Food containing genetically modified ingredients are already on our supermarket shelves, and livestock here are being fed genetically modified feeds.

His colleague, Teagasc director Prof Gerry Boyle, said the debate in Europe around risks and benefits of biotechnology was quite polarised.

He claimed the debate should be more “open, transparent and inclusive” with a greater level of understanding by all the stakeholders.

Prof Boyle insisted that openness was also required in the policy making process. He acknowledged the politically sensitive nature of the issues at stake but said Teagasc’s role was non-political. Instead its aim was to examine the science involved and to stimulate debate on biotechnology.

Prof Patrick Cunningham, chief scientific advisor to the Government, said the problem was essentially one of understanding by the population, not so much in the detail or the technology, but the balance of issues between the urgency of the development and application of the technology on the one hand and fear of change on the other.

The conference, which was launched on Sunday, continues today at UCC with contributions from scientists from India, the US and Canada.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times