Cork Environmental Forum opposes GM Potato Trail
Cork Environmental Forum is opposed to the field trials on a genetically modified (GM) potato line to be carried out by Teagasc, Oak Park, Co Carlow, consented to by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The consent for this trial is contradictory to the concerns of the public with regard to GMOs which has been made very clear both in Ireland and across Europe where there has been a distinct majority preference away from GMO produced foodstuffs and associated crops.
The environmental implications regarding the introduction of GMOs into Ireland are well documented. As an island Ireland could and should be kept isolated from potentially dangerous artificially introduced crops.
Genetically modifying food products is deliberately playing with the delicate balance of nature and once the gene is out there, you cannot reverse the effect. There are significant economic implications for Irish farmers and growers whose livelihoods could be adversely affected by the introduction of GMOs. There is also a knock on effect on the purity of other products which will have to be labeled as possibly containing GM such as honey – a bee cannot differentiate between natural plants and GM plants.
The precautionary principal which underpins many European environmental protective measures must be applied to GMOs. In summary our opposition is based upon the following principals, which support sustainable faming in Ireland:
* Food free from genetic engineering
* Farming without genetically modified seeds, crops or feed
* Farming not controlled by multinational corporations
* Diversified agriculture
* Profitable family farming, in the first and third worlds, with freedom to use traditional methods.
* We support food sovereignty which promotes the right of people to define their own food and
agriculture, produced in a manner which is safe, healthy and ecologically sustainable.
Due to our history and the famine, blight is an emotive issue, and people are drawn to a quick fix, particularly farmers who are trapped in a highly directed and regularized agri-food system which has reduced their autonomy in the way they produce food. However, there are already potato varieties that are strongly blight resistant and evidence of ecologically sound methods of reducing blight even in conditions such as this wet and humid Summer as outlined by John d'Hondt[i]
It is disappointing that the EPA by consenting to this trial goes against its own commitment of "putting the environment at the centre of our decision making" [ii] which includes the ecological system and natural biodiversity upon which the reputation of good food production in Ireland has been built. The introduction of engineered and unchartered processes to our food production system can undo this reputation and irreparably damage our "green" image in a sector which is hugely important to the economy, with agriculture responsible for an annual output of €24billion.
Whilst Teagasc are at pains to point out that this is a publically funded trial with no association to the biotech industry. Long term as has been evidenced to date it will be the vested interests who will control and benefit financially from interfering with food production in this manner, not the poor and hungry of the world, who are being disrespected and used in the productivity argument, or the Irish farmers. "The challenge for primary food production worldwide is not just how to increase productivity, but how to do so in ways that ensure more sustainable use of ecological services and natural resources while delivering balanced nutrition to all peoples of the world."[iii]
Cork Environmental Forum urges the EPA and Teagasc to reconsider the logic of this retrograde step and to not proceed with this intended trial.
[i] Extract from article by John D'hondt, Biologist-farmer in West Cork Gossip:
We have been growing potatoes in West Cork for 25 years without ever spraying anything. Not even copper sulfate. We have not seen blight for the last 22 years. Our system costs nothing and Teagasc seems to be investigating it at the moment to patent it (to get a patent the specific micro-organisms have to be identified and I did not want to spend the next ten years of my life doing that). My idea was that amongst the tens of thousands of different species of micro-organism in healthy soil there should be at least one that competes or eats the watermold Phytophtra infestans. So we mixed potato plant residues, even blighted stuff, with compost or fresh manure straight after harvest and let it do its thing in situ. Eventually we even stepped back from rotation and we have now been growing spuds on the same ground for 18-19 years without a sign of blight or any other disease.Last year, even without a summer, we had our best crop ever. We do not need GM potatoes at all! For reducing rat populations we use diet coke.
[ii] Ireland's Environment An Assessment 2012, Environmental Protection Agency
