Irish MEPs have joined colleagues in tabling 190 amendments to a draft European Parliament resolution on biotechnology that would, if adopted later this month, promote a positive approach to the use of genetically-modified (GM) crops.
More than 20 of the amendments have been co-signed by Kathy Sinnott MEP (Ind), who is seeking to ensure that GM crops would be banned if there was any risk of contaminating the crops of both organic and conventional farmers.
The amendments also specify that the regulation of biotechnology "must be firmly grounded in the application of both the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle, as stated in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy".
Fine Gael MEP Máiréad McGuinness has also tabled a series of amendments to the draft, although these are "more cosmetic" in nature, according to the GM-free Ireland Network; her position is that GM bans "are too simplistic".
But Fianna Fáil MEP Liam Aylward, a former minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, will be voting against the draft because he believes the introduction of GM technology "will damage the reputation of Irish agriculture".
Independent MEP Marian Harkin, who will also be strongly opposing it, said Ireland needed to resist any EU requirement to adopt GM crops. "Just as one cannot be a little bit pregnant, one cannot be a little bit GM-free," she added.
Eight county councils in the Republic have adopted motions declaring their areas as GM-free zones - Cavan, Clare, Kildare, Kerry, Meath, Monaghan, Roscommon and Westmeath - as well as two councils in the North (Fermanagh and Newry and Mourne).
But Minister for the Environment Dick Roche told the Dáil last March that he was "not aware of any basis on which a region might implement a blanket ban" on GM crops or the sale or use of approved GM ingredients in food or animal feeds.
He said the Government favoured a "positive but precautionary approach" to the use of biotechnology, based on a report in 2000 by an interdepartmental group that recognised "potential benefits" subject to scientific risk assessment of its safety.
Although Fianna Fáil pledged to keep Ireland GM-free in advance of the 1997 general election, Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan revealed last November that GM products accounted for 95 per cent of maize and soya feed imports.
The Minister, who was criticised by Green Party leader Trevor Sargent TD for her "laissez faire approach", will shortly publish a strategic policy document outlining how GM crops could "co-exist" with conventional and organic farming in Ireland.
The GM-free Ireland Network claims that such a strategy, if implemented, would "irreversibly contaminate the Irish food chain with GM ingredients that are unwanted by the majority of consumers, food brands and food retailers in Europe".
It said the draft European Parliament resolution "focuses solely on the the potential beneficial implications of agricultural biotechnology" and, though it would have no legislative impact, it could create a "pro-GM context" for future EU legislation.
But last month, the EU Council of Environment Ministers vetoed a proposal by the European Commission that would have forced Austria to lift its ban on two types of GM maize, in order to conform to World Trade Organisation rules.
With only Britain, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Netherlands opposed, Austrian environment minister Josef Pröll said the council's majority was sending a "very strong signal" that the commission should reassess its pro-GM policy.
Green Party environment spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said the decision "reopens the debate on the right of countries and regions to declare themselves GM-free" and gave Ireland a "second chance" to ban the use of GM products.
EU Parliament draft resolution: main points
• Efforts to develop biotechnology and genetic engineering should be encouraged in the EU to facilitate more sustainable farming practices, better food, increased yields and more diverse products.
• Biotechnology presents real opportunities in various fields, leading to the emergence of entirely novel products for agriculture, including pharmaceutical products such as oral vaccines.
• Biotechnology applications could help to reduce the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers in crop cultivation, thus contributing to the protection of the environment and of human health.
• Farmers have the right to choose between traditional, organic and GM production, so there is a need to establish clear, uniform and transparent measures to enable GM farmers to coexist with neighbours.
• The European Commission should establish a high-level group to plan a strategy on biotechnology for agriculture in the EU, in place of the current complexity of the approval process for new products.
• Though protecting human health and the environment must remain decisive, this should be based on objective scientific criteria, and the precautionary principle should not be used as an excuse for delay.
