Herculex to be approved by default shortly

By Justin McCarthy

The genetically modified maize variety, Herculex, is expected to be approved in the coming weeks - but not by Europe's politicians. The continued ban on the GM maize variety will come before EU Agriculture Ministers next Wednesday, 26 September.

Ireland's voting intention has yet to be confirmed, although Farmers Journal sources suggest we are likely to abstain.

Despite the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) giving the product the all-clear, it appears unlikely that the product will be approved by the Council of Ministers. However, the EU Commission is likely to approve the product in the coming weeks. This has been the pattern for previous approvals of GM material.

Speaking to the media at the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference in Trim last Friday, Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, said that Ireland had yet to decide a voting stance. "We haven't decided yet. We need to look at the overall picture on feed - we're big importers.''

The Minister added that "the price rise might concentrate minds''.

Interestingly, the Minister also clarified that the Programme for Government stated that "Ireland would look towards the establishment of a GM-free Island''. This did not mean a definite policy had been decided, she indicated.

The Minister also pointed out that 50,000 tonnes of maize by-products were successfully imported in the past 10 days.

Given European consumer resistance to GM food, there may be marketing advantages to Ireland developing a so called "GM-free zone''. However, due to the widespread adoption of GM crop varieties across the world, such a move could lead to unsustainable increases in feed costs in this country. Furthermore, as more and more GM varieties come on stream, we risk being left at a major competitive disadvantage.

Speaking at the ASA conference, Professor Cunningham, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser said: "Repeated surveys show that over 70 per cent of European citizens are against Genetically Modified (GM) food. This reality cannot be ignored. At the same time, the scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows that food derived from GM crops, or from animals fed on GM feeds, is safe.

Referring to the idea that Ireland be declared GM-free, he said: "This could possibly have advantages in marketing the €8bn of food products that we export.

"However, in order to realise this objective, a number of challenges would have to be overcome. The first is that, as Austria and Italy have found, declaring a region GM-free may conflict with EU rules permitting authorised GM varieties to be grown. The second is that, with effectively open borders between North and South, it would require a declaration in two jurisdictions. And the third is that with GM corn and soybean constituting a growing proportion of global supplies of these two crops, and with Ireland needing to import some two million tonnes per annum of such feed grains for its pig, poultry and dairy sectors, it will be increasingly difficult to source a GM-free feed supply.''

In early July, the EU Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health voted to reject imports of GM maize. Despite a commitment that Ireland would be voting in favour of allowing imports of 'Herculex' maize, a last minute intervention by Minister of Food and Green Party TD, Trevor Sargent, led to a reversal of this commitment and Ireland abstained in the vote.