Environmental activists who dug up and destroyed Ireland's first crops of genetically engineered sugar beet "deserve full praise", the Green Party MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, has said.
"If Monsanto, which was carrying out the beet trials, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which licensed the trials, insist on playing games with the Irish environment, then fair play to those who challenge them through peaceful direct action," she said.
A spokesman for the US multinational, Monsanto, said her comments were "extraordinary", given that the destruction of a one-acre site at Teagasc's research centre at Oakpark, Carlow, "was an illegal act".
Her comments were surprising, he said, as the Green Party had always supported the Irish environmental group, Genetic Concern, which has said it does not condone the action, claimed to have been carried out by the so-called Gaelic Earth Liberation Front. An EPA spokeswoman confirmed the site had been examined by its technical expert on genetically modified organisms, who would today oversee a complete extraction of the crop from the site. Under the terms of the licence granted to Monsanto, it was required to destroy the crop anyway once the trial was completed, she said.
It was the EPA view that the trial posed no risks to the Irish environment, she said. Monsanto confirmed that a criminal investigation had been initiated by the Garda. It said it intends to resume the trial as soon as possible and would not be deterred from working on a scientific evaluation which would have shown the benefits of genetic modification technology.
A spokesman for Teagasc condemned the action.
