Biotech Updates

GM Technologies Important Tools, Irish National Parliament Told

June 24, 2015

Genetically modified (GM) technologies are not a panacea for all of our ills, but they are certainly an important tool to help feed the world, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine of Ireland was told. Speaking before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Dr. Tom McLoughlin, senior biotechnologist of the Environmental Protection Agency said that independent research published in 2010 had found that "GM technologies per se were no more dangerous than conventional crop breeding". Dr. McLoughlin emphasized the need to use GM technology to feed the world, citing that the Ebola virus was treated by using GM technology.

The committee called a number of experts at a meeting earlier in June to discuss an EU proposal which would allow individual member states to decide if they wish to permit or ban the import of GM food and feed in their territory.

For more, go to the Houses of the Oireachtas website.