Madam, – Clearly Frank McDonald (Opinion, March 25th) holds the outdated and simplistic view that all genetically modified (GM) crops are bad and all others are good. The reality is that GM technology applied in plant breeding has a broad range of applications whose risks and benefits depend on the situation.
However, in Ireland it is not even possible do GM research field trials to examine such applications as the Government has instituted a ban without public consultation or scientific input. Noteworthy is that from 1997 to 1999 GM crops were grown in Ireland on a research basis without negative environmental impacts. In fact, there have been over 2,400 GM field trials in Europe. None had negative outcomes on health or the environment. Moreover, Greens in government in Germany allowed over 40 such GM crop trials.
Contrary to Mr McDonald’s suggestion, not all GM crops need be company-owned. Cuba, the ultimate public sector state, has had 59 GM field trials. China has just committed to investing the equivalent of $3,500 million of new public funds into GM crop research with hundreds of GM crops in trials.
Yet while Irish publicly-funded GM technology to prevent potato blight sits on a lab shelf, the current Government is happy to let over 250,000lbs of toxic fungicide be used annually on Irish potatoes against blight.
If Mr McDonald was truly informed he would ask why GM field research is prevented in Ireland and other plant-breeding technologies (radiation, chemical mutagenesis, cisgenetics, etc) that can often produce the same (or worse) environmental risks are not even regulated. The next time he is again a speaker at a Green Party convention I suggest he asks. The answer he would receive is simple: politics. – Yours, etc,