A campaign to control advertising from the "junk food" industry has been unveiled by the Irish and European Greens at a conference in Dublin.
The Green Party is calling for television ads for junk food to be banned across Europe. They are also launching their Dublin Declaration, which calls for Ireland to be declared a genetically modified-free zone
The President of the European Greens movement, French MEP Mr Dany Cohn-Bendit, launched the campaign at a conference in Dublin this afternoon.
According to the Greens, the Government will face strong criticism at the day-long conference for its stance on genetically modified foods. EU Agriculture Ministers are due to decide on whether or not to allow the sale of tinned GM sweetcorn within two weeks.
The Greens claim Ireland is one of six EU countries who have voted in favour of lifting the ban on GM foods. The Greens are angry at the high levels of cross contamination from GM seeds and crops the EU is prepared to accept before a product has to be labelled as containing genetically-modified material.
"On the basis of bad science, Ireland is going to let down its own consumers and food consumers all over Europe by presiding over the lifting of the ban on GM food in the EU," Mr Cohn-Bendit said.
Green MEP for Dublin, Ms Patricia McKenna, said the campaign against junk food advertising was being launched because obesity is Ireland's fastest growing health problem, particularly among children. "More kids are getting fatter; and it's no coincidence given that children are the targets of saturation marketing by the junk food industry", she said.
The Dublin Declaration calls for the redrafting of the EU Television Without Frontiers directive which allows governments to control food adverts, particularly those aimed at children and beamed in from broadcasters outside the state.
"With satellite channels now beaming in ads particularly targeted at the Irish market, we need EU wide co-operation if this problem is to be properly tackled," Ms McKenna said.