News | No GM Potatoes in York
After fierce and organised public opposition to the planting of GM potatoes in Yorkshire, the biotech company, BASF, which created them, has decided not to proceed with the trial this year.
Well done 'Hedon Against GM', and keep it up! The statutory approval is valid until 2011, but there is plenty of time to raise awareness in local people and farmers before BASF has another go.
Unfortunately Girton in Cambridgeshire hasn't been so lucky. BASF's potatoes went into the ground there on 19 April.
Meanwhile, details are gradually emerging about the nature of the GM potatoes, the extent of the trials, and, about misleading information coming from both BASF and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
The trials are testing, not one genetically transformed potato, but 80 different lines.
Over 3-4years, the potatoes will be screened for resistance to late blight (Phytophthora infestans), agronomic performance (e.g. plant vigour, yield), selected plant characteristics (e.g. emergence, flowering, maturation) and stability of the trait. Environmental data required for commercial approval will also be gathered.
DEFRA's February press release stated “The trials will test the effectiveness of the potato's resistance against UK strains of the disease”. This ignores the large number of different GM transformations involved (each one poses unique safety implications), and the commercial aspects of trial.
BASF's reassuring description of the gene inserted as copied from 'a wild potato' turns out, less reassuringly, to mean it came from a wild relative of the potato. Many relatives of the potato (which includes deadly nightshade) generate dangerous toxins. In this context, the inexplicable emergence of nut allergens in soya beans transfected with a brazil nut gene which was known not to code for an allergenic protein, should serve as a warning.
The safety of GM potatoes has been a sensitive issue since Dr. Arpad Pusztai's attempt to develop a risk assessment using GM potatoes as a model in 1998: unfortunately, his model worked too well for the biotech industry's liking.
OUR COMMENT
Perhaps you could suggest to DEFRA that Arpad Pusztai's risk assessment be applied to BASF's 80 lines of GM potatoes before anyone eats them.
SOURCES
- http://foodconsumer.org 6.04.07
- Nordlee et al. NEJM 1996
- GM Freeze Press Release 24.04.07
- www.hedonagainstgm.org.uk 14.05.07