Benn Gives Go-Ahead for New GM Potato Trial

Ministers have given permission for thousands of GM potatoes to be grown in Britain, a decision that is bound to provoke a new confrontation with environmentalists.

Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment , has agreed to let scientists at Leeds University cultivate the potato, which has been engineered to resist eelworm, in a trial over the next three years in a test field near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. The GM Freeze protest group is considering taking legal action.

The move follows repeated clashes over a different experimental GM potato, modified against blight, in Britain last year. Trials had to be abandoned following protests by environmentalists and local farmers.

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