Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Governments of each region and country have to make their decisions in regard to the issue of GM food, as does the European Union. In many underdeveloped parts of the world, by any observation, GM could very well provide part of the solution. However, our assistance concerns the more conventional form of crop production, improved agricultural techniques and improving the lot of the smallholder agricultural groupings, which are made up largely of women in smallholdings across Africa. GM is a great distance from that reality. It is a wider issue that is dealt with at global level and by Governments, and each Government will take its own position on it. It is not a part of this agenda.

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