Irish Farmers Journal expose anti-GM movement madness

Anti-GM lobby seek funding
Irish Farmers Journal, May 17, 2008, page 8

The group 'GM-free Ireland' has circulated an interesting document
looking for funding.

It describes itself as having "membership of 130 organisations, with
the greatest number and broadest diversity of any NGO on this island,
with over 22,000 members".

It claims that the campaign has mostly been funded by its
coordinator, Michael O'Callaghan, to the tune of around 150,000 Euros
since 2004. The document Says that the Irish Organic Farmers and
Growers Association (IOFGA) chipped in £40,000 from 2006 to 2008,
while Glenisk are credited with a £5,000 contribution in 2007.

The document states that "Michael can no longer continue to fund the
campaign, and also wants to phase in someone to replace him as
coordinator as soon as possible".

In the remainder of the document, GM-free Ireland implies that some
of the island's leading scientific advisors are "biotech industry
lobbyists".

Dr Paddy Cunningham, the nation's Chief Scientific Officer,
is "outed" as a member of a taskforce of the European Federation of
Biotechnology, and a member of the Irish National Council on
bioethics, whose report on GM crops and foods is described as "a
masterfully crafted work of biotech industry spin".

The proof supplied of this is the report's conclusion that "the
genetic modification of
crops is not morally objectionable in itself".

Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle, is revealed to be an
agricultural consultant to the World Bank, according to the missive.
This organisation is also part of the global GM conspiracy. The Irish
Farmers Journal is accused - along with IFA, IGFA, and Teagasc – of
being part of a massive disinformation campaign by the usual
suspects.

Half the cabinet is listed as failing to halt the march of the
biotech industry. Mary Coughlan, Mary Harney, Micheal Martin, Dermot
Ahern, and even John Gormley fail to meet the approval of GMfree
Ireland. As Kermit the frog once sang, it's not easy being green!