Time to clear GM-free air
It should be high on the agenda for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister Mary Coughlan’s national dairy industry forum, when she meets farmers and processors on July 26 to assist in determining policy priorities.
One of the things the industry will need to know is how the Government will aid the switch-over to farming without genetically modified animal feeds, and to the new marketing challenge it poses.
Clarification will be needed also on the Government’s vague sounding commitment to “seek to negotiate the establishment of an All-Ireland GM-free zone”.
The matter is being brought somewhat to a head by the Irish Grain and Feed Association’s warning that rejection by the EU of just one genetically modified maize variety, Herculex, would add up to €40m to the cost of feeding livestock in Ireland.
The IGFA’s warning that this will erode the competitiveness of our food exports comes at a critical time for our dairy industry, which is gearing up to capitalise on an expected decade of strong prices for the dairy commodities which Ireland produces.
Farmers will need to know how their existing feed supply will be affected by the move to GM-free, before they commit to an expected multi-billion investment programme sparked by the Farm Waste Management Scheme, and by the expected gradual scrapping of milk quotas over the next eight years.
The dairy industry expects an increase up to 40% in Irish milk production, but processing capacity may need to be increased by a similar order, and processors will need a clear road-map of the way ahead before committing to huge investments.
On one side a competitive economic advantage for decades to come is predicted for the farm, food and tourism sectors in a GMO-free island of Ireland.
This concept has broad support, with the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association among its backers.
They say the European countries which take much of Ireland’s food exports are turning their backs on “GM” food.
But the farm and food industries will need greater assurances of the economic feasibility of going GM-free.
As it is, the Irish Grain and Feed Association says supplies of GM-free maize by-products are not available to replace the 800,000 tonnes of corn gluten and distillers grains which its animal feed company members import from the US every year, which account for up to 30% of feed rations for beef cattle and dairy cows. If the EU goes ahead with a decision to ban Herculex maize, it effectively eliminates access to these imports, according to the IGFA.
But the GM-free Ireland Network says Irish farmers have been speaking to Brazilian supplies who could produce enough certified non-GMO soya to satisfy the entire EU demand for this most important source of protein in animal feed, and that GM-free maize gluten could come from Europe to replace the genetically modified maize gluten being imported into Ireland.
There are conflicting claims, and our farmers and food processors need clarification of the move to GM-free.
