The Irish
Independent

Biotechnology 'Can't Be Ignored'

Starvation or else ploughing up public parks and the Amazon Basin are the alternative scenarios to ignoring the benefits of applying technology to agriculture, an agri-food conference was told yesterday.

Dr Martina McGloughlin, director of biotechnology at the University of California, said today's biotechnology differs significantly from previous agricultural technologies.

Addressing the controversial issue of GM foods, the Galway-born scientist told the Teagasc Agri-Food Millennium Conference in Dublin that: ``Biotechnology is the low risk alternative to current practices.

``Not controlling fungal disease in plants, for example, allows them to generate deadly toxins which have been found, among other things, to cause brain tumours in horses and liver cancer in children,'' she said.

Dr Liam Downey, Teagasc director, called for an investment of 50m-100m over the next 5-7 years in three new applied biotechnology centres to evaluate and adapt new technologies in agriculture and food.

He quoted the recent prediction of the National Consultation Debate on Genetically Modified Organisms that 70pc of forecasted growth in biotechnology will be in the agri-food sector.

``It is essential, therefore, that each of the three centres, covering crops, animals and food, has the critical mass of scientists with a first hand knowledge of on-going advances in biotechnology, Dr Downey told the conference.

One of the current Teagasc scientists, Dr James Burke, has estimated that the development of GM grasses has the potential to benefit Irish farmers by up to 200m per annum, through lower inputs and better animal performance.