Call for Irish Government's Chief Scientific Adviser to Resign

Today's Irish Times article by Dick Ahlstrom, "Use of GM foods inevitable - expert" [1] quotes the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Prof Paddy Cunningham, who wants us to accept GM food against the wishes of the vast majority of EU farmers, retailers, and consumers.

Contrary to what Prof Cunningham implies, GM crops are grown on 0.21% of EU farmland, and leading EU retailers are beginning to extend their bans on food containing GM ingredients to also exclude meat, poultry and dairy produce from livestock fed on GM animal feed. Last year, one million citizens of EU member states signed a petition demanding mandatory labelling for the latter, based on the consumer's right to choose. And 43 EU Regions have already adopted quality agriculture strategies which avoid the use of GM animal feed.

Prof Cunningham is is a member of the biotech lobby group European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES), a task force of the European Federation of Biotechnology whose members comprise numerous biotech and pharmaceutical industry groups including Monsanto Europe, the Association of German Biotech Companies, the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (USA), etc. He is also a member of the Irish National Council on Bioethics, whose 2005 report "Genetically Modified Crops and Food: Threat or Opportunity for Ireland?" was a masterfully crafted work of biotech industry spin which concluded that "the genetic modification of crops is not morally objectionable in itself". Cunningham is also the former Chairman of the EU Advisory Committee on the Future of Biotechnology, and a former member of the European Group on Life Sciences. He recently worked as a consultant for the US company Elanco (a division of the US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly and Co. that markets Monsanto's GM-produce d Recombinant Bovine Somatotrophin growth hormone Posilac, which is illegal in the EU.

Having a biotech industry lobbyist occupy the post of Chief Scientific Officer of Ireland is a conflict of interest. Prof Cunningham should be removed from his post.

The Irish Times' uncritical coverage of Prof Cunningham's advocacy of GM food and farming is to be expected, since the Chairman of the Irish Times Trust which owns the newspaper - Prof Prof David McConnell of TCD - is the Vice-President of the same lobby group, EAGLES.

In "Debating GM: An analysis of GM coverage in the Irish Times and the Irish Farmers Journal from March 2004 to February 2006" [2], a Dublin Institute of Technology thesis by journalism student Emma Somers made a quantitative analysis of the sources, and a qualitative analysis of GM coverage in these two papers. The study revealed significant bias towards the biotech industry. Of the 48 articles published in the Irish Times, 65% quoted official sources, 13% quoted biotech industry sources, 10% quoted farming sources, and 6 % quoted biotech industry lobby groups. Only 21% quoted NGOs (which have the most expertise on the subject) and 10% quoted farming sources (which are most affect by GM policies). Most articles framed the issue as scientists versus Luddites.

Disinformation of this kind - perpetrated through biased, misleading, irresponsible reporting - and the conflict of interest between Prof. McConnell's dual roles as Chairman of the Irish Times Trust and Vice President of the EAGLES biotech lobby group are not acceptable for the newspaper of record in Ireland's "knowledge-based economy".

The paper's demonstrable bias clearly violates the core object of the Irish Times Trust's Memoranda and Articles of Association, "to publish an independent newspaper primarily concerned with serious issues for the benefit of the community throughout the whole of Ireland, free from any form of personal or of party political, commercial, religious or other sectional control."

Contact:

Michael O'Callaghan
Co-ordinator, GM-free Ireland Network
Tel + 353 404 43885 o mobile: + 353 87 799 4761
email: mail@gmfreeireland.org
web: www.gmfreeireland.org