Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the main arguments traditionally made against GMO relates to corporate influences, as Dr. Doyle Prestwich mentioned in her opening remarks. We have all heard stories of the power of companies such as Monsanto and the control they have over farmers in particular. Farmers are penalised for seed leakage, for example, and there is a significant level of control whereby farmers and the wider food chain become beholden to one big corporate enterprise. How can that be mitigated? Will our guests describe how they would foresee circumstances playing out? Dr. McLoughlin gave the example of potato growers in Ireland. How would they operate if we were using this system? Would they annually have to get seeds from a particular company and be bound by contract to that company? How would that relationship evolve over time and how would farmers be protected? Dr. Doyle Prestwich mentioned democratisation whereby smaller companies would play a part, but the nature of global capitalism is that large companies come in and take over successful small companies and sometimes they can become monoliths. How would that be mitigated?