2012-05-11
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THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency is expected to decide by the end of this month whether to allow a field study on genetically modified potatoes. The State agriculture and food development authority Teagasc sought permission from the agency to carry out the study on genetically modified potatoes resistant to late blight. Minister of State for Agriculture Shane McEntee said the trial was part of an EU research project carried out by 22 partners in 15 states. He told Sinn Féin environment spokesman Brian Stanley the main purpose of the trial was to assess the impact of the blight-resistant potato’s cultivation on the Irish ecosystem, compared to that of conventional potatoes.
2012-03-29
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The Environmental Protection Agency has received 81 submissions from members of the public about the proposal by Teagasc to conduct outdoor trials of genetically modified potatoes. The State farm body applied to the EPA at the end of last month to carry out field studies with GM blight resistant potatoes over the next four years at Oak Park in Carlow. The role of the EPA is to evaluate the risks posed by the trials. It has until the end of May to decide if it will grant permission with or without conditions, or if it will refuse to give the go-ahead.
2012-03-27
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In a statement issued last month, Teagasc (the Irish agricultural development agency) announced it is seeking a licence to carry out field trials of GM potatoes as part of the AMIGA consortium – a group including representatives of research bodies from 15 EU countries. Late blight, caused by the fungus-like organism Phytophthora infestans, decimated the Irish potato crop in the 1840s, leading to the Great Famine. Since then, the disease has remained a problem for Irish farmers, who have had to use chemical fungicides to maintain potato yields. Genetic modification has the potential to protect the potato plant from late blight attack without the need for large amounts of fungicide.
2012-03-14
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State body Teagasc has said it wants to conduct outdoor trials of genetically modified potatoes, which have been made to be blight-resistant. The agency has been growing the modified crops indoors for several years but has sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to move its trials outdoors. [...] However several groups are opposed to the trials, among them GM-Free Ireland, organic growers group IOFGA and the Irish Doctor’s Environmental Association.
2012-03-09
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Researchers involved in the proposed project would study a line of late blight resistant wild potato, which has already been successfully bred in trials in the Netherlands [...] said that because the line had already been bred successfully – and because similar GM trials had taken part in other countries – Teagasc researchers would know, in a large part, what to expect. However, he stressed that it was essential for researchers to carry out trials on Irish soil, as without doing so there could be no evidence to show how our specific ecosystem might react.
2012-02-28
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The Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Teagasc, have applied to field test genetically modified, blight resistant, potatoes as part of a new EU research project. [...] Dr Ewen Mullins, of Teagasc, told FoodNavigator that the trials would form part of a wider EU project called ’AMIGA’. He explained the initiative would investigate many aspects of GM monitoring and evaluation, including improving knowledge on the long term impacts of specific GM crops, and identifying bio-indicators that would allow for better integration of GM research.
2012-02-16
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Morrissey said the team had engineered a viable laboratory strain of ale yeast to make [low alcohol] beer, but since the proof of concept strain was genetically engineered, Morrissey said, it was not viable for production on a commercial level. “But demonstrating how we can modify the metabolism to get this different end result, it’s possible to identify the step in the yeast that can be modified. There are other non-GM ways of doing that,” he said.
2012-02-09
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Morrissey said the team had engineered a viable laboratory strain of ale yeast to make [low alcohol] beer, but since the proof of concept strain was genetically engineered, Morrissey said, it was not viable for production on a commercial level. “But demonstrating how we can modify the metabolism to get this different end result, it’s possible to identify the step in the yeast that can be modified. There are other non-GM ways of doing that,” he said.
2011-02-09
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The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, has said that Ireland has altered its voting position and will support a number of proposals from the EU Commission aimed at authorising the placing on the market of food, food ingredients and feed containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize and cotton. Mr Smith said Ireland will also support EU Commission proposals to introduce a tolerance for the low level presence of, as yet, unauthorised GM varieties in imports of animal feed.
2010-09-01
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ALMOST half of young farmers believe that cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops would be positive for Irish agriculture, the Macra na Feirme survey found. Some 47.2pc of farmers polled said GM cultivation would be positive but 23.6pc said it would be negative for Irish agriculture. [...] Macra president Michael Gowing said young farmers were renowned for embracing new technologies and this was demonstrated by the survey findings on GM.
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