Proceedings of the Green Ireland Conference • Kilkenny Castle, 16-18 June 2006

Why did Bord Bía cancel its sponsorship of this conference and also deny its offer to facilitate a follow up discussion on GM contamination with the food and farm sectors?

Bord Bía (the Irish Food Board) is the state agency responsible for trade and market development of Irish food, drink and horticulture (www.bordbia.ie).

Bord Bía has been criticised for failing to address the contamination of Irish food with GM ingredients, directly and via the animal food chain, thus causing loss of market share for Irish food exports. This relates directly to Bord Bía's marketing of Irish food under the brand of Ireland – the food island.

On 2 June 2006, the conference organiser and chairman, Michael O'Callaghan, sent an email to Bord Bía Director Aidan Cotter, inviting him to speak at this event on branding for sustainable farming, safe food and eco-tourism. In relation to the theme of genetically engineered food, the email stated:

"Although the GM food issue is fraught with different opinions within the Government and stakeholder groups, there is no market for GM-labelled food in Europe and Irish farmers, food producers and food exporters are already securing price premia for GM-free food in the European export markets."

"The conference will frame the discussion on this issue in the global and European context, and is intended to catalyse the learning process that is needed to foster a consensus through expert presentations, stakeholder perspectives, panel discussions, workshops, a screening of The Future of Food film, and informal discussions. In this connection, we will also hold a private discussion on the GMO issue for key players under Charter House Rules where stakeholders are free to speak their minds off-the-record."

Having received no response, O'Callaghan sent a reminder email on 6 June, which said:

"All of us feel very strongly that Bord Bía should participate in discussing the future of Irish food at this event".

Bord Bía finally responded on the evening of 7 June, when its Director of Marketing and Corporate Services, Muiris Kennedy, phoned Michael O'Callaghan to thank him for the invitation, saying that he would not only speak on behalf of Bord Bía (instead of Aidan Cotter who had a previous engagement), but that the agency would also support the conference with a token sponsorship of € 1,000. However, Kennedy requested that Bord Bía's sponsorship should be listed by name only, without its logo, because of the controversy surrounding GM issues in government circles. Late that evening, O'Callaghan added Bord Bía's name to the list of sponsors on the conference web site.

Sponsorship withdrawn under pressure

Hours later, around 9.30 on the following morning, O'Callaghan was surprised to receive a second phone call from Kennedy who said he had received an email from someone in Canada who alleged that Bord Bía was "using Irish tax payers money to support a view that is contrary to the official position of the Irish Government"! Instead of standing up for Bord Bía's right to co-sponsor a conference on the very serious threat that GMOs pose to the Irish food industry, Kennedy requested that Bord Bía's name be removed from the list of sponsors, although its sponsorship and Kennedy's participation would go ahead as agreed. O'Callaghan immediately removed Bord Bía's name from the list of sponsors, as requested.

But half an hour later, Kennedy called again to say that he was now obliged to cancel Bord Bía's sponsorship, because of his fear that the unnamed objector "might subsequently use the Freedom of Information Act to ascertain whether his agency had provided funding"!

GM-free Ireland later discovered that the objector is a Canadian Government agent called Shane Morris! (see details below)

(Canada is the world's second largest producer of GM crops, and was obviously trying to stifle the conference as a whole and the keynote speech by the contaminated Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser in particular.

But the scandal does not end there.

Offer to facilitate a follow-up discussion denied

Although Kennedy managed to avoid addressing any GM issues during his speech in the conference opening session (entitled "Forging a GM Policy for Ireland"), the issue was raised by various speakers in the stakeholders discussion following Kennedy's speech (see relevant section of the transcript).

As the transcript (taken verbatim from a video recording of the discussion) shows, Kennedy responded by claiming that Bord Bía's mission is only to market Irish food, but that related policy is determined by the Minister for Agriculture and Food. He explained:

"I'm kind of the monkey. Its the organ-grinder you want to get at!"

But Kennedy also admitted:

"At the moment there is no appetite, certainly, for any GMO-type product in the European market."

John Brennan (Chairman of the Western Organic Network and Manager of the Leitrim Organic Farmers Cooperative) said to Kennedy:

"Looking to the future of food coming of this island, it's important that we get the key people from the food industry – I'm talking about the likes of Slaney, ICM, Glanbia, and so on – to sit down with Bord Bía and other interested parties, and look at what the implications would be for the markets, and for the use of GM feed in livestock production systems generally... What's really concerning me is that the people who are making up the volume of adding to our gross national product – our domestic product in terms of exports – know very little about the implications of genetically modified organisms in agriculture today. I just put it to you that there needs to be some forum where the industry can get together and sit down and discuss these issues in a rational way, and try and come up with a coherent policy to deal with them in the future... We're finding it difficult to engage with the people from the various Government Departments on the particular GM issue... We need to have an industry discussion with the representatives that are making the vast majority of agricultural decisions on this."

Muiris Kennedy replied:

"Anything I can do, I'll follow up with you on that directly."

This clear and public offer by Bord Bía's to help organise the requested discussion on GM issues with key players in the food and farming sectors was mentioned in the post-conference press release on 19 June.

A few hours later, Kennedy received a second email from the same person in Canada who had first complained about Bord Bía's sponsorship of the conference. This second email requested Kennedy to "confirm your plan to arrange a meeting between Bord Bia and food retailers and those involved in the Irish food value chain 'to discuss the implications of GM food and farming as soon as possible' as suggested in the press release from GM-free Ireland".

Kennedy replied to the objector by email, claiming (a) that his reponse to the request for Bord Bía to help arrange the meeting was only in regards to the organic food and farming sector, and (b) that:

"I did not undertake to set up any meetings."

The Canadian Government agent

The Canadian Government agent who got Bord Bía to withdraw its funding for the conference, Shane Morris, is employed as Senior Consumer Analyst at the Consumer Analysis Section of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, as shown on the Canadian Government Electronic Directory Services: http://www.gmfreeireland.org/morris/ShaneMorris.pdf.

Morris is a former student and associate of the notorious biotech industry lobbyist Doug Powell, with whom he has co-authored a number of pro-GMO scientific papers. One of these papers received the GM Watch Propaganda Lab Award 2006 for its questionable scientific claims. The paper was criticised in a New Scientist magazine article:

Controversy over claims in favour of GM corn

New Scientist (vol 190, No.2553), 27 May 2006, p7
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9235-controversy-over-claims-in-favour-of-gm-corn.html

A leading researcher into scientific ethics is calling for the withdrawal of a paper published in the British Food Journal two years ago purporting to show that consumers preferred genetically modified to non-GM sweetcorn. The study, carried out at a farm store in Canada, claimed that sales of the GM crop were 50 per cent higher. The journal later awarded the study a prize as its "most outstanding paper" of 2004.

Now the campaign group GM Watch has published a photograph that it says shows a large sign suspended above the non-GM corn during the study that asked: "Would you eat wormy sweet corn?" The GM corn, it claims, was labelled as "quality sweet corn". The paper (vol 105, p700) claims that the corn was marked simply as either genetically engineered or regular.

If this is the case, "it is grounds for the journal to retract the article", says Richard Jennings, who studies research conduct at the University of Cambridge. Journal editor Chris Griffith of the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff has refused to withdraw the paper, but says he is willing to publish a letter condemning it followed by a response from the lead author, Doug Powell of Kansas State University.

GM Watch comment about the questionable article:

Just imagine photographic evidence emerging of a bunch of anti-GM scientists running this experiment with a sign asking "Would you eat mutant sweet corn?" over the GM corn.

Not only would the paper in which they'd failed to disclose this be withdrawn post-haste, the researchers' careers would suffer terminal damage. But running a propaganda lab seems to be fine and dandy as long as your findings support GM. They'll even give you an award.

At least now the researchers have got an award they deserve!

For GM Watch comment and a photo of the "wormy corn" sign:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72&page= 1

For related correspondence in the British Food Journal:
http://www.foodsafetynetwork.ca/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=9&sc=62&id=897

For a GM Watch profile of Doug Powell:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=257

Powell has been called "the darling of the pro-biotech lobby and its chief attack dog" and has been accused of using his "regular appearances on the op-ed pages of the nation to denigrate anyone who criticizes the science or the regulatory framework around biotechnology". He is a former associate professor in the Dept. of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, (Ontario), Canada. He was also the scientific director for Guelph's Food Safety Network, formerly known as the Agri-Food Risk Management and Communications Project, which now largely operates out of Kansas State University in the USA. Powell accuses those who criticise GM crops of engaging in "sound bite science" that has "everything to do with political opportunism and nothing to do with food safety". He is a fierce opponent of any move to make the labelling of GM foods mandatory. According to Powell, "Mandatory labeling is not about creating choice at all. It's about targeting products, creating retailer nervousness and customer fears and ultimately removing choice from the marketplace."

Powell's so-called "Food Safety Network" has been funded by some of the world's biggest agri-food corporations including Monsanto, DuPont, Eli Lilly, Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred, ConAgra, McCain, McDonald's, Nestle, Ag-West Biotech, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., Southern Crop Protection Association, Pharmacia, AgCare and the (biotech industry funded) Council for Biotechnology Information. The list of Powell's financial backers extends well beyond Canada to include organisations such as Central Laboratories Friedrichsdorf in Germany, Plant Bioscience Ltd. in the UK, Hort Research and Crop and Food Research in New Zealand, and Syngenta Seeds USA. More information on Doug Powell may be found at the GM Watch listing of GMO industry lobbyists at www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=257.

Powell's associate, by the name of Shane Morris, has set up a web blog specifically designed to denigrate the GM-free Ireland Network at www.gmoireland.blogspot.com complete with misinformation and "shoot the messenger" personal attacks on Michael O'Callaghan and Percy Schmeiser. His CV claims he is "a scientist with an interest in the politics of biotechnology" who has carried out postgraduate research at the University of Limerick on "public perceptions and attitudes to modern biotechnology and resulting public policy and legislation".

From 2001 - 2004, Morris was employed as National Biotechnology Operations Coordinator for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (which has colluded in massive contamination of the Canadian food supply with unlabelled GM ingredients). Since then Morris has been employed as Senior Consumer Analyst at the Consumer Analysis Section of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, as shown on the Canadian Government Electronic Directory Services: http://www.gmfreeireland.org/morris/ShaneMorris.pdf.

Here is a copy of email correspondence between Morris and Kennedy, which the latter forwarded to us:

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