A ‘hot potato’ issue
Civitas, 4 March 2010
The unlikely subject of potatoes has recently captured headlines across Europe. No, this is not another bizarre EU directive on “wonky vegetables”, but rather the return of the Genetic Modification (GM) debate, writes Natalie Hamill.
On Tuesday the European Commission authorised the commercial production of the genetically modified Amflora potato, 12 years after Monsanto’s MON 810 maize got the go-ahead.
The potato, developed by the German chemical firm BASF, will not be grown for human consumption, but for its high levels of starch. It will be used in a number of industrial settings, such as maintaining the moisture of concrete, providing a higher gloss for paper and feeding animals.
John Dalli, the new Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, said the starch produced from the potato would help to save “raw materials, energy, water and oil-based chemicals”. He also said that concern about GM was misguided, as: “All scientific issues, particularly those concerning safety, had been fully addressed.”
Both sides of the GM debate have been quick to use the ‘potato decision’ to rally support for their views.
Those who oppose the decision point to two issues. First, part of the process of genetic modification means the potato contains a gene that is resistant to some antibiotics. Despite the fact that the EU introduced legislation in 2001 to phase out products using genes that are resistant to antibiotics, various scientists have refused to rule out whether there is a risk resistant genes being transfered to bacteria during the production of the Amflora potato.
Secondly, they argue that allowing the cultivation of GM potatoes confirms a precedence – set by the EU ruling on GM maize – of allowing GM food cultivation within EU borders. Many citizens do not want GM food to be produced within the EU because they believe it is only a matter of time before it permeates the general environment, and enters our food chain.
Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, and several EU member states, have condemned the European Commission’s decision. Member states will still be able to decide whether the GM potato can be grown within their borders, and as such the Austrian government is preparing to ban the potatoes and Italy has promised to defend traditional agricultural methods.
For others, however, the EC decision is a triumphant one, and the biotech industry praised it as a return to “science-based decision making”.
The length of time (seven years) it has taken for the EC to reach a decision on the Amflora potato illustrates just how complex and divisive a subject genetic modification is. There is a lot more to be dug up on the subject than just one potato. Crucially, now that the debate has progressed out of private meetings in the EU Commission, it must be honestly and openly debated in public.