Irish group calls for strong international GM foods protocol

Governments meeting in Colombia to determine an international bio-safety protocol for the movement of genetically modified foods must stand up to industry demands if they want to prevent such produce being forced on them, Genetic Concern has warned.

"These negotiations are crucial, and sadly many governments, notably the US and Britain, are pressing for a weak protocol in response to heavy industry lobbying," said Genetic Concern spokesman Mr Quentin Gargan.

The protocol is expected to be agreed by more than 170 countries by the end this month and will be attached to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It will be binding in international law.

Genetic Concern has written to Ms Ritt Bjerregaard, the EU Environment Commissioner, who will represent EU interests in the negotiations, underlining the need for caution in the light of growing consumer concern and the latest scientific evidence.

If this was not enshrined in the protocol, it would facilitate multinational companies and force countries - and in turn consumers - to accept GM foods, even where they were opposed to them, Mr Gargan said. "This could even undermine the regulation of GMOs within Ireland." What was needed, he said, was "a safety-orientated protocol which makes biotechnology corporations fully responsible and legally liable for the consequences of their activities should things go wrong".

The Green MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, said the European Parliament's decision to introduce strict rules on liability, more stringent labelling of GM foods and restricted use of certain antibiotic-resistant genes placed a moral obligation on the EU to defend European demands for controls and to reflect the scale of consumer anxiety.

She feared the Government would accept a weak protocol, even though Irish representatives last week voted against two controversial GM cottons trying to gain access to the European market. "Irish ministers still have not recognised the extent of public fears," she said. "There is a massive gap between EU Commission attitudes and the public desire for caution."

Mr Gargan said the disclosure of concerns about GM foods among 22 prominent scientists and an indication of vested interests in the UK political process underlined the need to expand a national debate on GM foods due to begin here next month.

Representatives of 19 non-governmental organisations are to meet representatives of the Department of the Environment today to discuss the agenda and decide on their representatives in the debate. Genetic Concern believed the issues were so far-reaching that the forum should not be confined to scientists.

Mr Gargan said there was a case for a consensus hearing, with consumers acting as a jury on the issue because of gene technology's critical bearing on the future of society.