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 - 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 Café. 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 - 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."