Keep Ireland Potatoes GM-Free 1:15 at Dail

international | environment | event notice Tuesday February 14, 2006 20:36 by freek

Chance to meet an plan for resistence to Corporate GMO trainwreck

Call on EPA to prohibit GMO potato experiment

Irish farmers, food producers and consumers will hold a public protest at the entrance to the Dáil at 1.15pm on Wednesday 22 February to call for the Government to ban genetically modified (GM) crops in Ireland, and prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from authorising the release of GMO potatoes in Co. Meath.

22 February is the deadline set by the EPA for public submissions on a proposal by BASF Plant Science GmbH to conduct a five-year GMO potato experiment at a Teagasc research centre in Summerhill, Co. Meath, located near the Hill of Tara in the Boyne Valley, one of the oldest cultivated sites in Europe. The experiment is due to begin this April and continue till October 2010.

There will be a related press conference at 12.30pm at the Georgian Room in Buswell's Hotel on Molesworth St. Due to space limitations, the press conference is restricted to the media and politicians only, but all speakers will join the public protest at the Dáil entrance at 1.15pm.

Prof. Joe Cummins (Emeritus Professor of Genetics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada) has issued a scientific warning that this GMO experiment presents a clear risk of contaminating conventional and organic Irish potatoes.

Prof. Cummins accused BASF of making specious assumptions that could also produce toxic effects on humans and wildlife, adding "The people and wildlife of Ireland should not be exposed to inadequately tested genetic constructions".