The case is being heralded as a landmark case with the organic farmer having gone bust trying to sue his GM farming neighbour. In the background, the major players in the pro and anti-GM camps are mobilising to support the two farmers in their fight against one another.

While travelling during my Nuffield scholarship, I spent a good bit of time in the USA, Australia and Argentina looking at GM cropping. It’s a regular dinner topic with non-farming friends but I’m always astounded at how little the public understand about GM. Correctly regulated genetic modification, where within species crosses only are permitted, is essentially speeding up the archaic process of plant breeding. Genetic modification happens every day where plants cross in the wild, we as farmers just want to target that process more effectively.

Looking at GM from an Irish perspective, it’s easy to think it would be a silver bullet curing all our ills. However, we have one of the highest cost bases per tonne of grain when viewed in a global context and this is where we need biotech to help us out.

We currently spend around €50/acre on fungicides to grow a crop of wheat - disease resistant wheat will negate that. We spend anywhere from €110-150/acre on fertilisers, predominantly nitrogen and phosphates, a leguminous wheat that vectors mycorrhizae (fixes N like beans and cultures fungi that increase P use efficiency) will greatly reduce our fertiliser spend. We spend approximately €35/acre on herbicides; roundup ready wheat will reduce that down to the cost of roundup only. This all sounds a bit theoretical but the technology is out there to develop these traits for wheat.

The one consistent argument with GM is that it doesn’t increase yield, and this is true. But what it could do for Irish farmers is reduce the cost base in line with our international competitors while providing us with a reliable yield. Fine, the seed will cost more but as we develop the industry in Europe and the technology comes off patent, the seed cost will fall dramatically, as has happened with pesticides in the past.

I’ve always been amused by the Luddites in 19th century England as in contrast, tillage farmers generally adopt any technology we can to make our lives easier and lower our cost base per tonne. Unfortunately, it seems a few of the Luddites have survived, and worse still, taken up a political career in Brussels.