Meet the GM hacker who modifies food in his kitchen

Is GM food the devil? Last week I spoke at Kilkenny Arts festival on plans to grow genetically modified potatoes for the first time in Ireland. On the panel with me was Cathal Garvey, a bio-hacker who makes GM food in his kitchen, literally. Cathal brought a lot of new light and discussion to the subject.

He gave us a basic run down of how genetic science works and explained how he can hack qualities from one plant (such as luminesence) and insert it into another. Hey presto - glow in the dark bananas. What Cathal advocates is more discussion around GM food which informs consumers rather than scaring them, and liberalising the ability to alter food so that anyone can do it,  taking control from the agri-chem giants such as Monsanto and DuPont.

It's clearly one of the problems in the debate on GM - Monsanto have such a bad name in this area they make the Republican party look like a bunch of Carmelite nuns. And for most people, Monsanto is GM. They have wreaked the American food chain, polluted it's environment with unwanted crops, sued farmers and wield an unethical, ridiculous amount of power in how food is produced.

But genetically modifying food is not simply Monsanto. What Cathal (pictured below) advocates is that GM should be available to everyone. For young scientists like Cathal, there is the potential to create food that is patent free, and could have a role in impacting positively on hunger in the developing world.

Now this kind of talk upsets most people. Most foodies and consumers consider GM devils spawn and any genetic modification of anything, is unnatural, and unwanted. They say GM won't solve world hunger, the GM agri-chems have already meddled with Africa in a threatening way which has benefitted no one but themselves. But again, GM is not Monsanto. It is much more than that. What has raised people's hackles about the proposed trials in Carlow is that the potatoes may eventually become a commercial project that will again benefit private business and no one else. But Teagasc's answer is that it's not a commercial project and that without that without testing GM they can't go forward in understanding how it affects the environment.

If you want an overview of the Teagasc trials, check out this recent piece I did on Today with Pat Kenny explaining the potato sector in Ireland, the prevalence of blight and an explanation of Teagasc's plans at Oakpark.
http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A3228018%3A133%3A14%2D03%2D2012%3A

What's clear is that GM makes people impassioned and angry most of the time. What was refreshing about our talk at Kilkenny is that no one threw rotten fruit at us, all views on the topic were aired and there was lots of new stuff learned by all. Opening up the debate on GM, separating the scientists like Cathal from the Monsantos of this world allow discussion that's not adversarial but interesting, funny and really valuable. And if you want to make your own luminescent yoghurt, have a look at Cathal's website below. And send me some when you're finished.

http://www.indiebiotech.com

GM or not to GM. That's the question, bet I know the answer

There's a rift appearing in the Irish agri-food sector which could affect what has for so long now been a good news story. Last week Teagasc announced that they've applied for a license to sow genetically modified potatoes at their research centre in Carlow.

Irish groups opposing GM claim this threatens our export food market in a climate when agriculture is one of the top performing sectors of the economy. Surveys do suggest that consumers don't want to eat GM food, and that the perception of Ireland as a "clean, green nation" is key to the success of our exports in countries like Italy and Germany.

It also comes at a time where in the US, farmers who choose not to grow GM are currently taking a class action against Monsanto - they fear that when Monsanto's GM seeds contaminate their own crops, Monsanto will claim ownership and charge them licence fees on what were originally sown as non GM foods.

But Teagasc and agri-food experts like Dr. Paddy Wall say the fear of GM is nonsense and it's the only way to tackle world hunger, and a mistake for Ireland to not embrace it. They also feel not allowing GM animal feed into Ireland has made our pig and poultry sectors completely uncompetitive. There argument is - if consumers want Irish food at a fair price, eventually we will have to accept genetically modified crops as part of that picture and that arguing against it will damage Ireland in the long term.

Let's also remember that the Teagasc research is not to look at the economic viability of blight-resistant GM potatoes here, but to look at their environmental impact in the first instance. I'm doing a radio report on this next week and encourage all who have a vested interest or from a consumer point of view, a preference to GM or non GM food, to get in touch. Let your views be known!

No, not fish, it's an Omega 3 enhanced cow

"Heart-smart" bacon? "Healthy" hamburger? The GM giant Monsanto thinks it's found a way to make red meat better for us and guess what, it's got both foodies and environmental activists worried.

Monsanto has produced a genetically engineered soybean that contains a version of omega-3, the well known "smart food" which has been shown to improve cardiovascular health. That's why we're told to eat more oily fish as omega-3 is usually found in seafood.

Monsanto's genius is to come up with meat products that have omega 3, so consumers can ditch that healthy serving of salmon and tuck into a burger instead. The omega-3 enhanced pork and beef comes from livestock being fed with the enhanced soybean, a nifty way to add value to your cheap as chips burger for sure.

And of course, Monsanto has filed patents on the "derived benefits" of feeding animals its new wonder product. Food products normally aren't granted patent protection. According to a story filed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, "the new patent applications have touched a raw nerve among those who see them as an attempt by the company to exert control over the food chain.""There's been a much more liberal approach to patenting food, and this patent raises issues about that," Dr. Matthew Rimmer, an Australian expert in agricultural intellectual property, told ABC. "Jurisprudence in the United States takes a very expansive view of patentable subject matter."

Monsanto replied by saying that it has no doomsday plans to control the world's food supply. "Monsanto does not intend to take ownership of livestock or fish or to sell company-branded milk, meat or eggs enriched with omega-3s to consumers," the company posted on its website in June. But environmental activists don't believe them, not for the first time. A representative from Greenpeace told the broadcaster "As a community, we need to decide whether we want our most basic foods to be owned by chemical companies."

This is not a new debate - the ownership of seed patents is something Monsanto continually comes under attack for. But if the widespread use of enhanced soya brings Monsanto to a stage where they also own the patents to meat produced from soya-fed animals, then some parts of the meat sector, particularly in the 'States could arrive at a sticky situation.

GM crops are not currently allowed to be grown in Ireland but there is an argument that we should let in GM animal feed as it would keep costs for farmers down, especially in the pigmeat sector. And you can imagine if this omega-3 enhanced feed is available, wouldn't many Irish farmers want it as it adds value to their product?

Keeping Ireland the Food Island GM free is worth the extra we pay for non-GM animal feed. Remaining GM free and keeping the perception that we have as a clean, green island has a lot more value in the long run to Irish, UK and especially EU consumers of our beef and pigmeat products. I just hope the regime stays as it is in this country - stick it out and consumers will stick with us, if we go down the American road, we'll only have more heartache in the longterm.