Dyfed Smallholders' Association

"Farmers will be able to grow GM potatoes in Europe for the first time after a controversial ruling by the European Commission.

The GM Amflora potato has been developed by German chemical giant BASF to produce more starch. It is expected to be mostly grown in Germany for industrial purposes like the paper industry, but not food.

However it is unlikely to be grown in Britain because there is no demand for the potato in industry.
Luca Zaia, Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia, said his country was against the decision. Martin Hausling, a German Green MEP said approval of the potato "flies in the face of the 70 per cent of consumers who are against GM food, as well as the anti-GM position of the European Parliament." Heike Moldenhauer, of Friends of the Earth, said the potato carried a controversial antibiotic resistant gene that could cause problems if it enters the food chain through feeding the industrial pulp from the potatoes to livestock: 'This decision puts profit before people or the environment and will do little to increase public confidence in the Brussels bureaucracy.'"

Today's News - 3 March 2010 Soil Association