Sir, - How regularly over the duration of the BSE crisis have we heard quoted the importance of agriculture to the Irish economy? How often have we been made aware of the reliance of the marketing of that same agricultural produce on the pure image of the Irish environment? It does not take the expertise of either the IFA or the Department of Agriculture to answer these questions.
Could someone please explain to me, then, the logic of experimenting with both the Irish environment and Irish agriculture by introducing what are given the respectable title of genetically engineered crops' but what are essentially a manipulation of nature. Surely one should respect the logic of David Pearce's argument in Blueprint for a Green Economy that "if we do not know the outcome, it is hardly rational to act as if the outcome will be a good one". Or is the purity of the Irish environment and the goodness of Irish agricultural produce once again to be lined up helplessly in front of the merciless firing squad that is agribusiness? - Yours, etc.
Tramore Lawn, Douglas Road, Cork.