Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

As with other speakers, I record my concern about the humanitarian crisis in Burma. I agree with Senator David Norris who mentioned climate change and the fact that cyclones which have killed more than 22,000 people to date are clearly linked to the phenomenon of global warming. It is likely we will see such humanitarian crises recurring across the globe in the coming decades.

The Lisbon treaty was mentioned and one of its provisions deals with the establishment of a European voluntary humanitarian aid corps. This will be a positive development which will develop the civilian capabilities and assets of the European Union as well as the military assets which are more familiar to most people. This will be a role which the European Union more than likely will be called upon to play on an increasingly regular basis in the future and which we should encourage people to support.

I ask that the incoming Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food be invited to address the House on the important issue of agriculture. I make this request in light of a recent report which was sponsored by the United Nations, had the backing of the World Bank and was part-funded by a number of large biotechnology companies. The report studied the future of world agriculture. Four hundred scientists participated in the compilation of the report. It took four years to complete and is a comprehensive examination of global agriculture. One of its findings was on the issue of GM. The debate about genetically modified foods has been heated. GM has been discussed in the context of increasing food yields. The findings of this report suggested that GMOs do not offer any real potential for increasing food yields for parts of the world where hunger and starvation are serious problems. It would be important to address this issue of GM in any debate on agriculture because it is an issue that is slipping in the back door and farmers are being encouraged to think of GM crops as being some kind of magic fix for some of the food problems and food shortages we will face in the future.