Gilles-Eric Seralini, a French molecular biology university professor, is among the speakers at next week’s Taste of West Cork Food Festival, alongside Teagasc experts and local cookery guru Darina Allen.

Seralini may not be a household name in Ireland, but he contributed to making France an anti-Monsanto bastion with his 2012 study concluding that rats ingesting the firm’s genetically modified NK603 maize and/or water tainted with glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide “died two to three times more” and had more tumours than others.

Amid scientific outcry, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology retracted the article after reviewing the number of rats used in the study, having found that “no definitive conclusions can be reached with this small sample size regarding the role of either NK603 or glyphosate in regards to overall mortality or tumour incidence”.

Defiant Seralini only republished the article in another journal, arguing that its retraction was the result of “censorship” and “conflicts of interest” on the part of reviewers.

The Skibbereen event promises to feature lively debates.