Ireland tasting fruit of extensive gene inquiry

By KEVIN O'SULLIVAN*

Ireland has conducted one of the most intensive and wide-ranging debates on genetically modified foods of any country in the world.

The existence of a highly focused and well-informed campaign group; participation at every twist of the debate by a corporation promoting gene technology; and a Government minister determined to have public consultation on the issue all played a part.

The campaign group was Genetic Concern, set up on a rising wave of consumer unease and driven initially by a health food company owner exasperated at problems locating food free of genetically modified organisms. They were soon joined by organic farmers fearful of genetic contamination of their produce.

The biotech giant was Monsanto, whose Irish representatives chose to argue their case rather than fade into the background when genetically modified foods began to assume the reputation of the devil's poison.

The minister was Noel Dempsey who had responsibility for the environment. In August 1998, he invited submissions from interested parties (and received 200; some remarkably detailed). A debate attended by all sides was to be the next stage before an independent panel reporting on it to the Government.

Immediately, the issue was polarised. In a pre-election promise, Mr Dempsey had backed a moratorium on genetically modified food development. Tension was heightened by his favourable attitude to biotechnology in a document announcing the consultative process.

Essentially, the national consultation debate was to consider all views of the process in which an extra gene is incorporated into a food and confers a "desirable" characteristic. Ireland is not Britain when it comes to genetically modified foods. Yes, we had green protesters ripping up the few genetically modified trials on Irish soil, but Ireland's stunning economic performance has science close to its heart, and strategists talking of biotechnology as the new revolution to replace information technology found favour in many sections of the public. Yet we continue to market distinctly Irish foods as genuinely green.

The debate: Those against focused on the case for a moratorium; consumer choice (the ability to buy non-genetically modified food), biodiversity impact and ethical considerations. The academics found in favour of genetically modified foods after a weighing-up of positives and negatives but agreed there was need for effective regulation and case-by-case evaluation. The biotech industry's emphasis was on considering the benefits and safety of genetically modified foods.

The panel concluded there was no evidence to justify an Irish ban on genetically modified foods on environmental or health grounds. It accepted the claimed benefits of gene technology as applied to food but accepted there was a need for more transparency, improved labelling and possibly tightening of regulations. It warned that failure to embrace modern technology would have serious repercussions for the Irish economy.

Agriculture and food production could not remain competitive. The report said the rapidly growing Irish organic farming sector served a niche market and was "not a realistic alternative to safe, conventional farming practices."

The Government accepted the findings in full and said it would act on the recommendations in a "positive but precautionary" way.

The outcome represented a particularly strong endorsement of genetically modified foods when unknowns and concerns hang over the technology as it applies to plants. Its publication in October 1999 coincided with meltdown in consumer confidence in many parts of Europe, if not in Ireland. EU controls have been tightened so much crop approvals are unlikely before 2002 at the earliest, with legislative reforms due to be finalised in the meantime.

A year after the report, nobody is dying from eating genetically modified foods. No evidence is emerging of significant numbers of genetically modified organisms jumping species. Hysteria which gripped the UK has waned.

The debate in Ireland has become strangely quiet.

Yet for all that, consumers and in turn their Governments remain twitchy at the mention of genetically modified foods. But fickle attitudes will probably change dramatically again soon when genetically modified foods with direct nutritional benefits to the consumer become available.

Then supermarkets will be asked why they are not stocking such items and, true to form, they will quickly appear on the shelves.

* Kevin O'Sullivan is deputy news editor of the Irish Times. He was commissioned by the NZ Dairy Board to write this article.

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