DEAR SIR: I’m replying to a recent letter by Brian Rushe regarding GM-free dairy and beef feeds. He fails to see the hypocrisy in what he writes.

Firstly, everyone has their views on GM but it is the consumer who ultimately decides whether they will purchase GM-tainted food. In Germany at the moment, both Lidl and Aldi guarantee that their dairy and beef contains no trace of GM. I think this shows consumer demand and a market Ireland cannot fill. How many more high-end markets will pass us by?

Personally, I can take or leave GM but I cannot understand how Bord Bia, supported by the IFA, markets Irish dairy and beef under its QA scheme both at home and abroad. How can this be so when, of the 9,000t of feed fed annually, over two-thirds is cheap imported feed, with half of this GM? So where does that leave Origin Green, Quality Irish and the other schemes when the raw material is not Irish?

Mr Rushe then talks about the IFA “fairness and honesty in labelling campaign”. To this, I will quote John F Kennedy when he said “you can fool some of the people some of the time and more of the people more of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.

He goes on to cry some crocodile tears for the tillage sector. He does not lament the fall in acreage or income for this sector (we are the only sector that produces a guaranteed Irish and guaranteed GM-free product). He does, however, lament the extra costs he might incur in using our products if the consumer demands GM-free.

Lastly, it is not him or I but the consumer who will decide the GM debate, but at what stage does the integrity of Irish food and fairness to the consumer come into play?

Are the dairy and beef sectors still going to allow Bord Bia to misrepresent their produce to the consumers on the home and export markets, because someone somewhere is going to question their hypocritical marketing and like all the other scandals, it is the producer who will suffer.