The greatest "eco-warriors" of the next millennium could be genetically-engineered super-bugs which render waste harmless, the head of the Food Safety Authority, Dr Patrick Wall, said at the weekend.
He told a seminar at the Macra na Feirme annual rally in Waterford that the GM debate had become so focused that no one wants to think of these genetically-engineered bugs as "the good guys".
He said there was no genetically-engineered crop damaging the Irish environment now. The main threat was waste, industrial, household, sewage or slurry.
"Every town in Ireland has now got a sign, `No Dump' or `No Superdump', `No Landfill Site' or `No incinerator'," said Dr Wall.
"We now have genetically-engineered bugs that can biologically degrade waste, so my forecast is that the greatest eco-warriors of the new millennium will be the genetically-engineered bug." These bugs, he said, could be put into septic tanks or slurry tanks and they speed up the biological degradation process. On food safety, he said the public was too worried and industry not worried enough, while one food scare could wreck an industry. "The Belgian food industry lost £1.5 billion in a food scare. No one died. You do not have to have bodies to have a brand name wrecked," he said.
Addressing the 2,000 young farmers, the Macra president, Mr T.J. Maher, called for incentives for older farmers to retire and young people to stay in farming.
He said the only direct financial incentive to encourage young farmers to enter the business was the installation aid scheme grant of £5,600 to upgrade farms to EU standards.
He said the £27 million provided in the National Development Plan for its scheme was not sufficient to provide an appropriate installation aid scheme which would encourage enough young people into an industry already starved of new blood.
He called for an increased payment to £8,000 and other changes, including an interest subsidy on development loans to those in the scheme.
Young farmers in other EU countries had access to low-interest loans for farm improvement and investment, he said.