GMOIreland

interesting piece....will wait and see what exactly the Dail transcripts say...

Use of GM foods inevitable in EU- expert

DICK AHLSTROM, Science Editor

Fri, Jul 18, 2008

IT IS inevitable that EU states will accept genetically modified foods, despite the fact that 70 per cent of people are opposed to them, the Government's chief scientific adviser has stated. Foods containing modified ingredients are already on our supermarket shelves and livestock here is being fed genetically modified feeds. Prof Patrick Cunningham answered questions about the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods yesterday while attending the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. He also handled questions on a range of subjects including future energy supplies, risks posed by overhead power lines and waste incineration and climate change. Prof Cunningham issued a formal report to Government on GM foods last summer. It looked at safety, benefits and risks and, after assessing a range of studies on the issue, he believed GM was of value to Ireland. "The answer has to be yes," he told the Committee. "[ GM] is not going to go away and it is advancing at a hell of a rate," he said. Countries around the world were growing about 100 million hectares of GM corn, cotton, soyabean and rice. Genetic modifications impart resistance to herbicides and insect attack, providing cost and yield improvement for the farmer, he said. "This has given a tremendous competitive advantage to those using [ GM]." We are already consuming foods with GM content, he said. About 60 per cent of products contain either corn or soya ingredients. "In fact, GM products are on the supermarket shelves," he said. "We are using approved GM corn in pig feed in Ireland today." The safety of these products was a key element of the report, he said. The results of a survey of the limited literature on the subject suggested that the consumption of GM foods did not pose a health risk.

GM directive deficiencies in the European Union. The current framework for regulating GM crops in the EU weakens the precautionary principle as a policy tool

Shane H Morris & Charles Spillane EMBO Reports 9, 6, 500 504 (2008)

http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v9/n6/index.html

Here, we argue that the EU's regulatory framework for GM crops is not likely to be sustainable in its present form, particularly given the rapid pace of advances in plant biotechnology. Furthermore, because the framework is solely process-based so as to regulate GM plants but not other varieties, the genetic constitution of which has been modified by using alternative or traditional methods it is not in accordance with the precautionary principle, which is the EU's chosen basis for risk assessment and the regulation of new technologies. Instead, we argue a more appropriate regulatory framework, which would more logically reflect the idea of the precautionary principle, should focus on comparatively assessing the potential environmental and health risks versus benefits of a product, rather than overly focusing on the process through which the product a new plant variety was created. In essence, the GM regulatory fiasco has largely been a construct of past policy decisions to choose a process rather than a product-based approach to regulate new plants or foods, including GM crop varieties.

click here:
GM directive-EMBO-Morris&Spillne.pdf also a related paper published in Trends in Biotechnology in 2007: EU biotech crop regulations and environmental risk: a case of the emperor's new clothes? Trends in Biotechnology Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2007, Pages 2-6
MorrisTRENDS2007.pdf

Greenpeace being economical with the truth again...

Greenpeace claims US rice can cause cancer and even miscarriage

"Initially, GMO rice was meant to protect [rice] against pests, but studies have shown that it can cause cancer and even miscarriage," Ocampo [Greenpeace spokesperson] said.

but this is the same rice that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in an Aug 2006 statement described as "Consumers can be assured that this is not a food safety issue" Dr. Pat O'Mahony, chief specialist, biotechnology, with the FSAI.

Since then I am not aware of any studies showing LL601 rice causing miscarriages or cancer....

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080424-132417/Warning-ra\ ised-vs-sale-of-allegedly-contaminated-US-rice

Warning raised vs sale of allegedly contaminated US rice

But NFA spokesman denies Greenpeace claim

By Abigail Kwok

INQUIRER.net Posted date: April 24, 2008

MANILA, Philippines -- At least two brands of US commercial rice being sold in public markets to replace government-subsidized rice could be contaminated, an environmentalist group said.

But Tom Escarez, spokesman of the National Food Auhtority, denied the claim by environment watchdog Greenpeace, saying the government has a certification that the imported rice being sold in public markets were not contaminated with genetically-modified organisms (GMO). In a forum Thursday, Greenpeace said studies revealed that two imported brands of US long grain rice were already contaminated with GMOs. The two brands are Blue Ribbon from Texas and Riceland from Arkansas. These are being sold in all S&R Supermarkets across Metro Manila, the group said. "We don't know how many [US rice] are still contaminated because Greenpeace doesn't have enough funds to conduct a thorough experiment," said Daniel Ocampo, Greenpeace Genetic Engineering Campaigner for South East Asia. But Escarez denied claims. "Meron kaming hawak na certification from the US na GMO-free ang bigas [We have a certification from the US that the rice is GMO-free]. Ang certification na ito ay galing pa sa [This certification even came from the] US Department of Agriculture." "Hindi kasama itong Blue Ribbon at Riceland sa binebenta naming P25 [Blue Ribbon and Riceland are not among the brands that we are selling for P25]. Hindi namin alam itong dalawang brands na ito [We do not know these two brands]," Escarez added. He also said that the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has yet to find traces of GMO contamination in all of the rice imports in the country. The NFA said it has imported a total of 44,000 metric tons of rice from the US. Meanwhile, Ocampo said, "This is the second time Greenpeace has discovered illegal GMO rice in the country. And, as usual, the Department of Agriculture was unable to detect its entry into our rice supply." Ocampo said that based on their investigation, two kinds of GMO strains were found in US rice sold here. These are LL601 and a still unidentified strain. Traces of LL601 were found in US rice from the Blue Ribbon brand, he said. Ocampo said that GMO rice was different from hybrid rice. GMO rice is made by manually inserting synthetic genes to rice grains to manipulate their traits. The synthetic gene usually would come from a totally different organism. The goal of GMO rice is to protect rice from pests and other harmful organisms in the environment, he said. Hybrid rice is safe because it is made by combining two kinds of rice and is bred through conventional means, Ocampo said. "Initially, GMO rice was meant to protect [rice] against pests, but studies have shown that it can cause cancer and even miscarriage," Ocampo said. Ocampo said that Greenpeace was calling on the NFA to isolate all US long grain rice and to conduct tests to determine if all were contaminated with GMO. He also called on NFA to pull out all US commercial rice from the market. "We challenge the DA, through the NFA, to conduct further and more stringent tests on rice to ensure its safety," Ocampo said. The NFA started selling US commercial rice at P25 per kilo to replace government subsidized rice, which was pulled out from public markets so that these could be distributed in depressed areas.

the www.gmoinfo.ie website that has been developed by Teagasc (The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) and is co-funded by the the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has undergone a huge makeover and is back after a long absence..... enjoy......

Will be transferring my blog here over the next few days....