School of BEES academics advise Government on food security

11 Mar 2022

Academics from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) recently addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the role of gene-editing technology in sustainable food production.

The UCC representatives were Dr Raghu Badmi, Molecular Biologist, School of BEES; Dr Barbara Doyle Prestwich, Head of Plant Science, School of BEES; and Dr Patrick Harrison, Department of Physiology. Dr Thomas McLoughlin a Biosafety Expert, formerly of EPA Ireland, also addressed the committee. In addition, officials from Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and representatives from Teagasc were in attendance.

The focus of the meeting was the use of innovative technology in food production, in particular CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. This topic is due for additional consultation across Europe in the coming months.

Dr Barbara Doyle Prestwich encourages everyone to participate in the consultation.

"My main concern is that scientific facts get lost in the middle of old debates. The science has moved on. But I know that there are still some concerns amongst members of the public in relation to the technology. You will now have an opportunity to participate in an event in UCC which will aim to answer some of your questions".

Dr Doyle Prestwich and colleagues hope to run a half day workshop on the issue of Food Security and Food Sovereignty at the end of June in UCC and will circulate more details closer to the time. They encourage interested colleagues across the university to get involved. They also expect the topic to be of universal interest to the public as food consumers.

You can watch the opening statements from the Oireachtas Joint Commmitte meeting on 9th March here