Claims by supermarkets that they will be able to supply food that does not contain genetically modified organisms will not stand up, according to US soya industry representatives in Dublin yesterday.
The soya farmers' representatives were speaking before meeting Government officials. They claimed there would be serious implications for world trade if the EU restricted access of GM foods.
They disputed claims by supermarkets, notably Marks & Spencer, that they would be able to phase out completely GM ingredients or derivatives in their products. The Irish supermarket group, Superquinn, was among the first in Europe to make such a commitment in response to customer concerns - and in the meantime it is labelling food containing GMOs.
Representatives of the United Soybean Board, a farmer-funded body which carries out research, and the American Soybean Association, which represents farmers, said such guarantees would be impossible for soya, which is in 60 per cent of processed foods. More than half of US soya is genetically modified to make the crop resistant to herbicides. It is a market worth $10 billion a year. Europe imports 25 per cent of the crop, 97 per cent of it for animal feed. The US is the EU's single biggest soya supplier.
Mr Scott Fritz, an Indiana farmer director of the ASA, said farmers could supply non-GM soya - known as "identity-preserved" soya - but only in limited quantities and "it is not going to be 100 per cent pure". If farmers were going to keep the non-GM varieties separate, it would cost much more.
There were so many stages between farm and consumer that guaranteed segregation would be difficult if not impossible. "Marks & Spencer would not like to hear that. I have told them that."
A Marks & Spencer spokeswoman, Ms Sue Sadler, said the company never used the term "GM-free". It was delivering on its commitment to withdraw all GM ingredients and derivatives from its foods, up to a tolerance level of 0.01 per cent to allow for the possibility of "accidental mixing" of GM varieties. She accused the soyabean farmers of being misleading. "They are saying we don't have a choice. We are saying we do. We have found some identity-preserved soya in the US, and more in Brazil and Canada."
Mr Curt Raasch, a USB director and farmer from Iowa, said growing GM soya was saving him money, due to less herbicide and reduced fuel usage as the crop did not need spraying as often. He said the yield was similar to nonGM varieties. With less detrimental environmental impact, GM varieties enhanced soya's reputation as a healthy food, especially as nutritionally both types were the same, he insisted.
In a separate development, the campaign group Genetic Concern has highlighted its concerns about the findings of a study on the levels of natural plant hormones, known as phyto-oestrogens, in GM soya. They are considered of nutritional benefit and believed to have anti-cancer properties.
The study, led by Dr Marc Lappe of Centre for Ethics and Toxics in Gualala, California, found that two herbicide-tolerant varieties of GM soya had significantly lower levels of three types of phyto-oestrogens. It also found lower levels of important compounds known as isoflavones in GM versions of the crop.
"This research suggests, once again, that the assumption of substantial equivalence between conventional and GM soya (the view they are nutritionally similar) may be flawed," said Ms Sadhbh O'Neill of Genetic Concern. Furthermore, if soya was being promoted as a "flagship nutritional food" and it included its GM varieties, because the crop is not segregated, then that claim would be misleading, she said.
The State's agricultural research body, Teagasc, has confirmed it is to embark on an environmental impact study of GM foods as they apply to Ireland. It will not involve the kind of controversial GM crop field trials that have been taking place across Europe, but GM crops may be grown in controlled conditions in glasshouses. Any field tests would probably entail pollen-dispersal research, according to Mr Tom Thomas, head of Teagasc crop research centre in Oakpark, Co Carlow.
