PROTESTERS DIG UP GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED CROP
PA 29.09.97 22:03
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By Chris Parkin, PA News
Protesters have dug up an experimental genetically-engineered
sugar beet plantation at an Irish government-run farm.
The beet was seeded earlier this year at the farm near Carlow,
about 60 miles south of Dublin, in a project backed by the
American Monsanto biotech company after the failure of a legal
challenge to the development in the Irish High Court.
The plantation was allegedly destroyed, according to an anonymous
telephone call to the British-based Genetic Engineering Network,
by a previously unheard of group named the Gaelic Earth
Liberation Front.
The caller said: "This was the first genetically-engineered
crop in Ireland and hopefully it will be the last."
The crop - planted in trials to discover a beet more resistant to
herbicides - was said to have been dug up in the early hours of
Sunday.
The legal bid to halt the project, which had been cleared by the
Irish Environmental Protection Agency, was made by Ireland's
Genetic Concern organisation. The court ruled against their fears
that the Carlow scheme raised personal fears and apprehensions.
A statement from Monsanto said objections to the crop had already
been fully dealt with in court.
A Genetic Concern spokesperson said they were not surprised at
what had happened. Their objections were based on safety aspects
of the scheme, which was centred at the Carlow base of the Irish
government's Teagasc food and agriculture development agency.