Researchers at an Irish university are assessing the level of exposure of glyphosate to farmers and their families.

Ireland’s bioMonitoring Assessment of Glyphosate Exposures (IMAGE) project is recruiting farmers and their families to participate in the study.

Non-farming families have also been recruited for the project, but the final call for participants is for farmers and their families.

A total of 100 families are required for the project – 50 farm families and 50 non-farming families.

Denis Naughten recommends opting out of directive on GMOs

A proposal “to restrict or prohibit” cultivation of crops containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is to be put to the Cabinet on Tuesday by Minister for the Environment Denis Naughten.

Mr Naughten has recommended opting out of an EU directive on GMOs on the basis that it is critically important Ireland takes “whatever steps are necessary” to maintain our GMO cultivation-free status. He said that status is “a key element of our international reputation as a green, sustainable food producer”.

The transposition of Directive 2015/412 enables Ireland to opt out of cultivation of GMO crops, approved for cultivation elsewhere in the EU on a much wider range of policy grounds than had previously been the case.

The Cabinet has agreed to enable Ireland to prohibit or restrict the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Ireland.

The Government approved the transposition of an EU Directive, which will enable Ireland to opt out of cultivation of GMO crops approved for cultivation elsewhere in the EU.

This will happen on a much wider range of policy grounds than had previously been the case.

These grounds include where such cultivation would be contrary to environmental policy objectives, town and country planning, land use, socio-economic impacts, avoidance of GMO presence in other products, agricultural policy objectives and public policy.

A weedkiller that is believed to have the potential to cause cancer will be banned by South Dublin County Council (SDCC) by the new year.

The council has voted to ban the use of glyphosate while negotiations continue at European level over the future of the controversial weedkiller in farming.

The vote was tabled by Sinn Fein councillor Enda Fanning, who said that a 2015 report by the International Agency for Research Against Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate was probably carcinogenic to humans.

ICSA president Patrick Kent has criticised the Government’s decision not to avail of the opportunity to ban the sales of genetically modified (GM) crops for cultivation by the October 3rd deadline. He is calling on Minister Kelly at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to explain his reasons for neglecting to ensure Ireland remains GM free. Mr. Kent has described the decision as “very troubling” given the importance of both the farming and food processing industries to the Irish economy. Mr. Kent had previously noted that he was concerned Ireland would become caught out of step with key EU competitors and markets who had already availed of the EU opt-out clause regarding the growing of these GM crops.

Mullins and his team have spent the winter cloning new potato stock in a locked, temperature controlled room and, nearby, a secured greenhouse bay where the plant is isolated and any waste must be sterilized in a steamer. In the spring, they will start the test by setting out more than 2,000 transplants in a fenced field at the Irish agricultural research service’s farm. “There’s a lot of public interest” in his work, Mullins said. Not all of it is friendly. Genetic engineering remains highly controversial in Europe, and the research in Ireland has spawned a campaign against it. The field trials in Carlow are harming Ireland’s reputation for local, organic and artisanal food, said Kaethe Burt-O’Dea, a Dublin-based local-food activist. “People feel that once you let GM in, there’s really no turning back,” she said.

THE FIRST steps were taken yesterday in a legal challenge to a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to allow genetically modified potato trials in Co Carlow. A group of environmentalists and organic producers sought, but were refused, a High Court order allowing them to legally challenge the Teagasc trial without facing the possibility of having to pay “prohibitively expensive” costs if they lost their case. The application was made by Co Kildare farmer Percy Podger on behalf of a group that included Green Party councillors Malcolm Noonan and Danny Forde and eight other organic producers and environmentalists.

John Spink is head of crop research at Teagasc, the Irish food development authority that has applied for the licence. ”We need to do this trial in Ireland because our environment is different from other parts of the EU,” Mr Spink told BBC News. ”It's not about commercialising GM potatoes. We're looking at impacts on the environment and on the pathogen itself.” But campaigners believe that the trial is risking Ireland's reputation as a green, clean food-producing island. The Organic Trust in Dublin says that this approval has ”grave ramifications for Irish food and farming”.

Top names from the food, restaurant, and tourism sectors have sharply criticised the Environmental Protection Agency for potentially destroying Ireland's ”clean, green” agricultural image by allowing GM potatoes to be grown in Ireland. The agency has given consent to the Department of Agriculture's research arm, Teagasc, to carry out field trials on a genetically modified potato that could improve resistance to blight. The trial is to be carried out over the next four years, at Oak Park in Co Carlow, on an area up to two hectares. Speaking as a member of Slow Food Ireland, the European Chef's Association, Eurotoques, and the Taste Council, chef and owner of Ballymaloe House, Darina Allen, said she ”felt so let down” by what she described as ”a deeply regrettable decision”.

On 3rd June 2010, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) informed the EPA of the unauthorised release of GM (genetically modified) event NK603 in conventional maize variety PR39T83. This release was subsequently confirmed by DAFF on 19th July 2010. The maize variety was supplied by Pioneer Hi-Bred Northern Europe and was in the process of being evaluated for cultivation and use under Irish farming conditions in DAFF small scale field trials.