Sir, - Your editions of August 19th carries a report of the Garda asking witnesses to the destruction of the GM crop in Cork to come forward. The Garda should contact Mr Kevin Myers, as he seems to have operated a border control post at the site. How else could he have determined the origin of the perpetrators of what he calls "neocolonial vandalism." (An Irishman's Diary, August 19th)? Apparently Mr Myers has carried out a detailed census, including an IQ measurement, of everyone who opposes GM crops.
Of course he hasn't done either of these things. It is unlikely that his statements about nationality are true. In any case, I would like to know what nationality has to do with the veracity of an argument.
Instead of contributing to the debate, Mr Myers has written an article which lacks the fundamental criterion for a reasoned argument - accurate facts presented in logical order. Even a good diatribe must be supported by a smattering of reason and logic, both of which are notably absent from his piece.
There are some facts, such as the mention that the GM crop being tested will lead to an increase of the use of Round-up, a Monsanto product. One of the repeated claims for the introduction of GM crops is the environmental benefit of reducing pesticide use by effectively building the pesticide in to the plant. Mr Myers inadvertently throws light on the real motives behind the rush to carry out these trials.
These are not scientific tests, they are product tests. They are tests in pursuit of that buzz-word, synergism - seeds from Monsanto made resistant to a weedkiller produced by Monsanto.
Is Mr Myers a creationist? The claim that genes will not cross species carries with it the assumption that the genome of an organism is immutable. This is not the case. Also, the methods used by experimenters to introduce genes into another genome are derived from observations made about organisms which exist in nature. Bacteria can and do swap genetic material so the transmission of genes, such as the antibiotic markers used to confirm the success of gene transfer, is possible.
Planting open fields can hardly be described as a controlled environment. To adapt nature to our designs requires us to proceed in a very controlled manner. We don't know enough about gene manipulation and what could happen over the long term. We don't know enough about existing genomes and their interactions with the environment. The gulf between what we know about the DNA molecule and how it behaves in the real world is vast. I think this gap in our knowledge is too great for us to let the modified genome out of the bottle. - Yours, etc.,
Damian McKeon, Heathervue, Greystones, Co Wicklow.