Fears over safety of GM spuds

Seedsmen and environment groups have questioned the need for new UK trials of potatoes that have been genetically-engineered for blight resistance. The first British trial of GM potatoes is underway in Norfolk with scientists insisting that modified spuds could save growers millions of pounds by reducing the need for chemicals.

Campaign groups, however, fear the GM trial could contaminate crops growing in nearby gardens, allotments and farms - and have called on the new government to abandon the experiment. Reports have suggested that £20,000 has been spent on security screens to prevent the crop being ripped up by anti-GM protestors. Thompson & Morgan, the Ipswich-based seed firm, said that gardeners had been able to beat blight for the last five years by growing GM-free Sarpo spuds.

Released in 2005, and exclusive to T&M, Sarpo ‘Mira’ is Europe’s leading GM-free blight-resistant maincrop potato. If infected with blight, the spud fights the infection without effecting crop yields. T&M’s vegetable product manager Colin Randel said: “Blight is a problem in many parts of the country so GM-free Sarpo varieties offer reassurance to gardeners. “Continual changes to laws on fungicides available to gardeners could eventually leave them with nothing to spray on potatoes to protect them against blight. That is where Sarpo ‘Mira’ comes into its own,” Colin added.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) accused the Government of “wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money by forging ahead with unnecessary and unpopular GM crop trials”. FoE food campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said: “We can feed a growing global population without trashing the planet or resorting to factory farms and GM crops.” But gardening writer Peter Seabrook welcomed the GM trials. “If we can get blight-resistant genes into quality varieties it will be of immense benefit to everyone: gardeners and all people who eat potatoes,” Peter said. “As for Sarpo, the breeding work has been brilliant. But these [GM-free] varieties are very vigorous in terms of top growth and tubers are not to everyone’s taste. I hope that both Sarpo and GM potatoes continue to be developed.”