Archived press release

UK Government urged to reject 'half baked' GM potato plans

30 November 2006

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to reject an application to grow experimental GM potato trials in the UK because of the risk of contamination to the food chain. A decision on the application, made by biotechnology company BASF, is due to be announced today (Friday 1 December).

BASF has applied to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to trial GM blight resistant potatoes at two sites in the UK, in Derbyshire and Cambridge [1]. If approved, the GM potatoes are likely to be planted from April 2007 for a period of five years.

Defra received fourteen public responses to its consultation over the application [2]. None were in favour of the trials going ahead. Those objecting include Derbyshire County Council, and the British Potato Council and McCains who are specifically concerned about the risk of negative consumer perception.

Friends of the Earth GM Campaigner, Clare Oxborrow said:

"These GM trials pose a significant contamination threat to future potato crops. We don't need GM potatoes and there is no consumer demand for them. Even the county council and the food industry have raised concerns about the impacts should the trials go ahead. The Government should promote safe and sustainable agriculture, not this half-baked GM potato plan."

Friends of the Earth objects [3] to the trials because:

• Any GM potatoes left in the ground after the experiment risk contaminating future food crops;

• BASF has failed to provide safety data for the GM potato. This is vital to reassure the public if the food chain is contaminated;

• There is no need for the product - alternative methods exist for controlling potato blight and a GM `quick fix' is unlikely to provide a long term solution;

• There is a clear lack of consumer demand and market - consumers have rejected GM foods and food retailers and manufactures have responded by eliminating GM ingredients from their products.

Although BASF plan to destroy the crops at end of the trials to attempt to prevent them entering the food chain, the experience of GM rice in the USA, where an experimental GM rice line has contaminated worldwide rice supplies, shows that these experiments are not always containable. Rice, like potatoes, has been considered a `low risk' GM crop for contamination, due to the low levels of cross pollination expected. Yet recent events would indicate that even supposedly `low risk' crops can be involved in serious GM contamination incidents.

The Government recently consulted the public separately on its proposals for the rules needed to grow GM crops commercially alongside conventional and organic crops. Thousands of people objected to their proposals, which, if agreed, are likely to result in routine and unlabelled GM contamination [4].

Notes

[1] www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/regulation/applications/06-r42-01.htm

[2] Friends of the Earth requested from Defra the responses to the public consultation on the GM potato trials and have been sent a total of fourteen responses from organisations and individuals.

[3] For Friends of the Earth's full response see: www.foe.co.uk/resource/consultation_responses/gm_potato_objection.pdf (PDF)

[4] See www.stopgmcontamination.org

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust