Sir, - Dr Connor Long referred to comments I made on RTE radio about genetically engineered food. It is not just the view of the Green Party that the chemical industry is damaging the ecosystem, but of many in the scientific community. One has only to think of the ozone layer and climate change to realise that much of Green Party policy and philosophy is based on scientific discovery, research and field trials
Where scientific evidence does not suit companies and governments it is often left to people such as greens, environmentalists and community groups to break the silence and secrecy. We do not accept the trade-off of risk versus benefit, but seek to turn our civilisation towards sustainability. With regard to the destruction of Monsanto's field trials into genetically engineered sugar beet, I have condemned this action in public on several occasions, and the Green Party does not condone any such action.
Concerns about the imprecise technology of genetic engineering and its importance for future generations are not confined to greens and environmentalists but extend to farmers, consumers and the scientific community. Gene transfer is a well established fact, not only in field trials in Germany and Scotland, but also in crops grown commercially, such as brassicas. Weeds resistant to herbicide are now common in Australia. Trials in California show residues of Roundup in Barley on lettuce and carrots planted one year after spraying. The New York State attorney general instructed Monsanto to stop claiming in TV commercials that Roundup is "safer than table salt" and "practically non-toxic".
In the case of sugar beet there are a number of concerns. Consumers are worried that food plants such as beet are being genetically engineered to enable them to be sprayed with Roundup directly. The industry is lobbying to try to ensure that such sugar will not be labelled, making it impossible for consumers to determine whether or not they are eating sugar from such beet. It will be impossible to control the release of genetically modified beet grown on a commercial basis because in practice every farmer knows that some beet will bolt.
Currently a number of EU member states have banned the import of genetically modified foods from the US. If consumer resistance continues, and health effects are demonstrated, Ireland would be in an appalling position as a major food and agricultural producer if we produce sugar that not only was Roundup tolerant, but was impossible to distinguish from sugar produced from unmodified beet.
Incidentally, I would have thought a scientist of such eminence would know that the technical term pesticide includes herbicides. - Yours, etc.,
From Nuala Ahern, MEP
Greystones, Co Wicklow.