The mainstream food culture is morally bankrupt and unconcerned with the health of its customers, according to a leading food writer, Mr John McKenna.
At the annual meeting of the Association of Health Stores in Limerick yesterday, Mr McKenna said the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) represented a departure from a holistic and humane approach to food.
GMOs are microbes, plants or animals in which genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally through mating or natural recombination.
Mr McKenna said that the use of GMOs represented the "most extreme example" of adulteration in the food production process, a process which it was the role of the Government to police. Last week a conference in Dublin on the regulation of GMOs heard that EU directives were currently being strengthened to improve risk assessment and a better labelling of foods containing GMOs.
Mr McKenna also accused supermarkets of being unconcerned about the sources of their food or how it got onto their shelves and said that mulinational producers were more concerned about profit than issues of public concern, such as the treatment of food with artificial preservatives and the impact of extensive farming practices on the environment.