Teagasc Hosts International Agri-Biotech Conference
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Written By: Editorial Team |
Posted: 28/10/2008 |
‘ABIC 2008’, a major international conference on agricultural biotechnology, was held in Cork on August 24, with over 450 delegates attending the Teagasc-hosted event in the city’s university. Billy Kelleher, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, performed the official opening.
The conference provided an opportunity for Ireland’s best and brightest researchers, academics and industry personnel to deepen their understanding of the most recent developments in the agri-biotechnology sector from the global leaders in the field. With biotechnology already integrated into all aspects of agriculture, food safety, dairy science, marine, bio-energy and crop and animal science around the world, developing the understanding and knowledge of Ireland’s participants in the sector will better position Ireland to assess and evaluate the positive contributions that biotechnology can make.
Chairman of the conference, Prof Jimmy Burke of Teagasc, told the opening session that, “Biotechnology has revolutionised agriculture and food production systems worldwide in a way not foreseen a mere 30 years ago. Various national reports have rightly identified biotechnology as one of the core technologies which Ireland and Irish industry must now embrace.”
Professor Burke added, “Foods containing genetically modified ingredients are already on our supermarket shelves, and livestock here are being fed genetically modified feeds. New technology that imparts resistance to herbicides and insect attack [is] providing cost and yield improvement for farmers around the world, and giving a competitive advantage to those using this technology.”
Prof Burke went on to say, “Irish cereal farmers are the most productive in the world, partly because they have access to excellent varieties of wheat, produced by classical plant breeders, and if they are to hold on to this record farmers and the industry generally must be able to use the most appropriate and competitive technology in the future. In this regard, new biotechnological techniques, such as marker-assisted selection, are already making a difference.”
Dr Charles Spillane, ABIC 2008 Programme Committee Chair and local UCC organiser, stated that, “Internationally, a biotechnology revolution is currently sweeping through the agri-food research sector, impacting on the food, feed, fuel, fibre, animal, fish, nutrition and pharmaceutical sectors. A key issue is that global food production needs to double by 2050. By 2020 we will need to produce 36 percent more food with less water, less fertiliser, less chemicals, not much more land and more extreme weather patterns. We are currently not on target, and will need to harness every available technology, including GM and other biotechnologies, if we are to even approach such food production targets.”