The organisers of the biggest conference staged in the Republic on genetic engineering of food have accused biotechnology interests of avoiding controversy by not sending speakers to the event, which opens in Co Cork tonight.
A new campaign group, Growing Awareness, which has a strong membership among farmers and organic and other food producers, singled out Monsanto, the first company to undertake GM crop trials in the Republic, for not participating in the three-day conference in Skibbereen.
Mr Quentin Gargan, of Genetic Concern, claimed the absence of biotechnology companies could be "indicative of a tactic to avoid what has been described as `the killing fields', issues of public health and environmental concern relating to gene technology".
Since November the organisers have "experienced difficulties in getting people who support this technology", including geneticists, to agree to participate. What was intended was an open and fair debate aimed at consumers and farmers, according to Ms Norma Barclay, spokeswoman for Growing Awareness. "We made every effort to have a balanced debate. We do not want a turkey-shoot."
With the Republic having what is described as a thriving biotechnology sector, and multinationals saying they want to participate in debate, they expected significant participation, if only to allay public concern, she said. Dr Jim Ryan, head of BioResearch Ireland, a company set up by Irish universities to promote biotechnology opportunities, has agreed to attend as an advocate of the technology.
A Monsanto spokesman said its Irish business manager, Dr Patrick O'Reilly, "in effect its sole representative in Ireland", was unfortunately unavailable this weekend. He had participated in virtually all public debates on the issue that had taken place here, including some hostile ones, the spokesman added.
Mr John McKenna, Irish Times food writer, who is against GM food, is to deliver the opening address. Dr Mae-Wan Ho, a geneticist, and Dr Ricarda Stein brecher, an environmentalist, prominent opponents of gene technology, will speak tomorrow when the food writer and broadcaster Ms Darina Allen, of Ballymaloe Cookery School, is due to take part in a debate.
Ms Allen this week stood over her view that "our very lives and those of whom we love are at stake" in the GM controversy. The Fine Gael spokeswoman on environmental information, Ms Deirdre Clune, yesterday said such an extreme claim was not doing consumers any service.
"It is worrying that someone of the calibre of Darina Allen is raising this kind of food scares which ignores available scientific evidence to the contrary. She is on the Food Safety Authority of Ireland board and knows that no GM foodstuffs in Irish shops are dangerous to our health," Ms Clune added.
There was a need, however, for more independent tests on the effects of GM foods which would go some way to addressing the legitimate concerns of consumers, Ms Clune said. There was also a need for manufacturers to clearly label their products.
