Defra approves GM potato site

The statutory approval granted to BASF is valid until 2011. The company has said that it will not proceed with trials at the East Yorkshire site this year, but may do so in future years.

However trials of the GM variety will be going ahead at the headquarters of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridgeshire following Defra’s approval of this site last year. It is intended that NIAB will manage the proposed trials in Yorkshire too.

The East Yorkshire application was evaluated by the Advisory Committee of Releases to the Environment (ACRE). It concluded that the trials were not a threat to human health or the environment.

The GM potato developed by BASF is resistant to late potato blight. The purpose of the research trials is to test the effectiveness of the potato’s resistance against UK pathotypes of the disease. Similar trials are already underway in other European countries.

Following ACRE’s advice, precautionary conditions have been attached to the statutory consent for the trials. These aim to ensure that GM material does not persist at the trial sites. The harvested GM potatoes will not be used for food or animal feed.