Madam, - The GM-Free Ireland Network's declaration of 1,000 GM-zones in Ireland (The Irish Times, April 23rd) is a naïve and futile gesture. The GM genie has long escaped out of the bottle.
Diabetics now take GM-derived insulin, a safer version of the former animal-derived product. GM micro-organisms have been used for decades in foods requiring fermentation (alcoholic drinks, cheeses, yoghurts, etc). Cotton is rapidly becoming a worldwide GM crop, with the bonus (in China at least) of thousands fewer cases of pesticide poisoning among growers.
Kathy Sinnott, MEP, supports the GM-Free Ireland Network, believing that Ireland could become a "safe" (i.e. non-GM) food source for Europe. In this, she is probably more influenced by populist hysteria than scientifically verifiable facts; she must know that the interminable European Parliament debates on GM foods presented no credible evidence that GM foods were any less safe than conventional produce.
In policing the borders of their 1,000 GM-Free zones, the GM-Free Ireland Network will have to exclude diabetics, alcoholic drinks, cheeses and yoghurts. Of course they will also have to insist that everybody discards their cotton shirts and underwear before being allowed in. - Yours, etc,
CON O'ROURKE, Park Lane, Sandymount, Dublin 4.