15 Mar - Are GM Potatoes Really Needed?

Genetically Modified potatoes have been in the news again this week as TSL (The Sainsbury Laboratory) have just finished a three year project creating GM blight resistant potatoes. Additionally, Mark Walport representing 'The Council for Science and Technology' has written to David Cameron describing the pressures on food production for a growing world population. Also, Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, also gave his support to GM crops in a speech last year. He said it offered a 'wonderful opportunity' to benefit human health as they are a safer alternative to conventional plants. Quite a head of steam building up here.

Excuse the pun, but let's to a bit of digging. The GM spud project at TSL is funded by two main backers: the BBSRC, a group of seven Research Councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK), funded by the Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Also, by a US company called Simplot who describe themselves as 'one of the largest privately held food and agribusiness companies in the nation'. So, both British government and agri-business cash has already gone into this project, is it surprising that letters to the PM are being sent about how wonderful GM crops are and what a great solution they will be to food shortages?

All this pressure on both the EU and national governments to lift the constraints on GM testing, production and growing is not about feeding the poor, it's about making money for big business. Personally I haven't made up my mind about GM crops entirely but, it does concern me that the whole thing is somewhat disingenuous and the media often ignores the real movers and shakers who are pushing the GM agenda.

Finally I'd like to quote Professor Jonathan Jones from The Sainsbury Laboratory. “Breeding from wild relatives is laborious and slow and by the time a gene is successfully introduced into a cultivated variety, the late blight pathogen may already have evolved the ability to overcome it,”. Well, here's some news for you Professor Jones, the Sarvari Research Trust is a not-for-profit company based near Bangor in North Wales, U.K. The trust has already successfully bred and brought to market Sarpo potatoes, resistant to late-blight disease. These are non-GM and have been developed by normal breeding and have been funded by members of the public via the community driven 'Buzzbnk'. This shows that, despite what government lobbyists and big business say, GM crops might not be the only way to help to feed a growing population; the small, community funded organisation can still make a contribution.

So, why is pressure being brought to governments to accept blight resistant GM potatoes when we have already got Sarpo blight resistant spuds? Could it be that big companies have already pumped money into this project and are now looking for a handsome payout? I'll let you decide.

Links:

http://www.farminguk.com/News/Approve-GM-crops-adviser-urges-Cameron_29578.html

http://www.tsl.ac.uk/gmspuds.html

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/organisation/organisation-index.aspx

http://www.simplot.com

http://www.sarvari-trust.org

https://www.buzzbnk.org/SarpoPotatoes