Mixed reaction to DEFRA GM potato trials announcement

DEFRA has published details of a proposed site for a genetically modified potato trial in Yorkshire.

The site, which will test the effectiveness of the GM potato's resistance against UK strains of late potato blight, has been proposed by agrochemical company BASF. It is needed, the company says, to replace a site in Derbyshire that pulled out in December 2006.

It will now have to undergo an approval procedure with DEFRA. This has begun with the department calling for any interested parties to make representations about "the risk of environmental damage posed by the GM trial".

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Growers fight plan to hold GM potato crop trial in region

CAMPAIGNERS have vowed to fight attempts to hold a genetically modified potato trial in East Yorkshire. Crop development business BASF Plant Science wants to carry out a five-year trial of a potato modified to resist the devastating fungal disease late blight at a farm in the Hedon/Preston area, after a Derbyshire farm pulled out.

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Defra invites views on proposed new site for GM potato trials

Defra gave approval in December for the company BASF to undertake research trials of a GM potato at two sites in England, one in Cambridgeshire and the other in Derbyshire.

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New GM food fears

A British newspaper is reporting clinical links between genetically modified (GM) foods and cancer.

A weekend article in the Independent cites a Russian study affirming the work of Árpád Pusztai. Pusztai is a Hungarian-born protein scientist who in 1998 published an article in The Lancet medical journal raising questions about GM food safety. He detailed genetic damage observed in the digestive tracts of rats fed a diet of genetically modified potatoes. It concluded that the abnormalities were "mainly due to the expression of the GNA transgene in the potato."

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Secret Monsanto Genetically Engineered Potato Study Suppressed for 8 Years

A secret feeding study of Monsanto GM potatoes, conducted in 1998 by the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and suppressed for 8 years, showed that the potatoes did considerable damage to the organs of the rats in the study. In comparison the rats in the “control groups” which were fed on normal potatoes or on a non-potato diet were healthier, and had much less organ and tissue damage. This research, fully supported by Monsanto through the provision of the GM potatoes, was conducted at approximately the same time as Arpad Pusztai’s research in the Rowett Institute.

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Secret Monsanto Genetically Engineered Potato Study Suppressed for 8 Years

A secret feeding study of Monsanto GM potatoes, conducted in 1998 by the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and suppressed for 8 years, showed that the potatoes did considerable damage to the organs of the rats in the study (1) (2). In comparison the rats in the “control groups” which were fed on normal potatoes or on a non-potato diet were healthier, and had much less organ and tissue damage. This research, fully supported by Monsanto through the provision of the GM potatoes, was conducted at approximately the same time as Arpad Pusztai’s research in the Rowett Institute.

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SA: GM crops cover 1,4m hectares

South African farmers, commercial and emergent, are growing more genetically modified (GM) crops.

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