To: Brendan Smith, T.D. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Agriculture
John Gormley, T.D., Minister of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Re: forthcoming GM maize votes at the EU Council of Ministers

Dear Ministers Gormley and Smith,

You are now faced with crucial decisions regarding the cultivation of genetically modified crops in the European Union. How you vote will have significant and possibly irreversible consequences – for the future of food, health, the environment, and agriculture – in Europe as a whole and Ireland in particular.

Your failure to resist pressure from the European Commission to allow more GM crops in Europe will encourage Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty, shatter the credibility of your Government's agreed programme to declare this country as a GM-free zone, and further damage what's left of our reputation as Ireland – the food island in the aftermath of the recent dioxin scandal.

Implementation of your Agreed Programme to keep this island off-limits to GM crops – together with our geographical isolation and predominantly Western winds – promises to give Irish farm produce the strongest protection against contamination from wind-borne GM pollen and GM seed dispersal in the whole of Europe.

The continued availability of certified Non-GM animal feed is also essential to safeguard the right of Irish farmers and food processors to follow the lead of the 50 EU Region which have already adopted Quality Agriculure strategies which forbid the use of GM animal feed for meat, poultry and dairy production.

A ban on GM crops and a voluntary phase-out of GM animal feed will give Ireland the most credible safe GM-free food brand in Europe – a unique selling point for present and future generations.

Any contamination of the European maize supply with GM varieties could destroy this competitive advantage of ours in perpetuity.

As you know, the European Commission is trying to force Austria, Hungary, France and Greece to lift their safeguard measures against contamination by Monsanto's MON 810 GM maize. This is the only GM crop currently allowed for cultivation in the EU. We were delighted that Ireland was among the twenty-two EU member states which rejected the latest attempt to force Hungary and Austria to lift their bans.

The European Commission also proposes to approve the cultivation of two GM maize crops (Syngenta Bt11 and Pioneer 1507). These would be the first approvals for the cultivation of a GM in Europe since 1998.

I am very concerned that you might abstain from voting on these two issues at the next meetings of the Council of Ministers. The resulting lack of a Qualified Majority Vote would enable the Commission to greatly increase GM contamination of the European maize crop. This would make it difficult if not impossible for Irish farmers and food processors to source the Non-GM maize feed required to keep acccess to the rapidly growing EU market for top quality GM-free meat, poultry, eggs and dairy produce.

We therefore request you to vote NO on these two Commission proposals.

• Your Agreed Programme for Government to keep Ireland off-limits to GM crops is backed by the Northern Irish Minister of Agriculture Michelle Gildernew, and is supported by individual MEPs, Senators, TDs, MLAs, and Councillors from all the political parties on this island.

• GM-free zones have already been declared by 130 food and farming organisations and by 19 local authorities representing over 1 million citizens on both sides of the Border.

• Scotland and Wales also intend to keep their countries free of GM crops.

• Increasing scientific evidence proves that GMOs pose unpredictable and unexpected consequences for our health and the environment.

• The two new proposed GM maize varieties (Bt11 and 1507) are highly controversial. There are many scientific unknowns and uncertainties regarding their dangers to the environment as well as to human and animal health. They are genetically modified to produce a Bt-toxin which threatens non-target species (including butterflies and beneficial insects), as well as the health of soil and aquatic ecosystems.

• Approving these GM maize varieties is in any case pointless, since they are both resistant to a toxic herbicide that will soon be taken off the market under the EU's new pesticide regulations.

• A growing body of peer-reviewed, published scientific evidence has established that large-scale cultivation of GM insect-resistant maize in Europe will have detrimental environmental effects.

• Numerous scientific studies and hundreds of contamination incidents in 57 countries indicate that GM crops jeopardize conventional and organic farming. Moreover, the lack of any harmonized EU pollution liability laws enables agrochemical companies to avoid compensating contaminated farmers, as has widely happened in Spain.

• Last December, all 27 member states unanimously called for a review of the present GMO approval system. In particular they called for a substantial improvement of the risk assessment of GM crops, the harmonization of GMOs and pesticide risk assessment, the consideration of socio-economic aspects as well as local environmental and agronomic characteristics.

• The Commission's current proposals to grow Bt11 and 1507 GM maize varieties and to force countries to grow MON 810 clearly contradict this Member States' mandate.

• As former EFSA Chair Patrick Wall said, "People have to have confidence in the [regulatory] process, and if people haven't got confidence in the process, well then the process has to be changed... We cannot force-feed European citizens products that they don't want. We live in a democracy. People have a right to have objections. And if people don't want the technology they have a right not to have it."

As well as voting NO against these Commission proposals, I also urge you to formally request the UK Ministers of Agriculture and Environment to do likewise – in order to prevent the cross-border contamination that would invevitably result from any environmental release of GM seeds, crops or other organisms in Northern Ireland.

Please also encourage your counterparts in the other EU member states to reach a Qualified Majority Vote against the GM maizes - by clearly and publicly signalling your Government's determination to keep the whole of this island free of GM crops - in order protect our farmers' freedom to choose GM-free animal feed, to defend our citizens' human right to eat normal food, and to protect our reputation, farm exports, biodiversity and food security for future generations.

Sincerely,