European environmental groups, including Ireland's Genetic Concern, have asked an EU committee to reject applications to allow two varieties of genetically modified (GM) cotton to be grown in Europe.
They are due to go before the "Section 21" committee for approval on Thursday. Approval by this committee is crucial if GM crop-producers are to get licences for the commercial introduction of new varieties to EU markets.
Genetic Concern claimed the finished applications were "flawed and inadequate to ensure that these crops are safe for release into the environment". The US company Monsanto has applied for EU-wide distribution through the Spanish government. If approved, cotton would be grown in southern EU states and the by-products included in animal feed throughout Europe, including Ireland.
Genetic Concern has urged the Government to vote against the introduction of the GM cotton. The "genetic constructs" put into the plants - effectively a new gene with a mechanism including a "marker" to indicate it has been incorporated into a crop - include genes giving resistance to three antibiotics used by vets. But Monsanto has repeatedly denied any risk of resistance-transfer to humans from its products.
According to the Pasteur Institute in France, however, use of antibiotic-resistance genes may increase the rate at which diseases become immune to various antibiotics.
One of the cotton varieties has the controversial "bt" gene. This makes the plant produce its own insecticide in the form of the natural bt toxin. While Monsanto says this means chemical sprays are not needed, Genetic Concern cited studies suggesting this system hastens "superbugs" immune to bt, rendering this natural insecticide useless for organic farmers in the future.
The second variety of cotton has been engineered to withstand sprays of Round-Up - a highly successful broad-spectrum herbicide, though environmental benefits claimed for the herbicide are disputed by Genetic Concern.
Although Monsanto claims the cotton is "substantially equivalent" to ordinary cotton, researchers have shown the trangenic cotton leads to higher levels of gossypol, a toxin naturally present in cotton. This trend, according to Genetic Concern, warrants further investigation.
"These products, using antibiotic-resistance markers are the blunderbusses of the genetics industry, developed using old techniques that have been superseded long ago," said Mr Gargan. "Even mainstream industry accepts that fluorescent marker-genes are safer and make the use of antibiotic markers an unnecessary additional risk with this technology."
