Attack of the Potato Men

With the news that BASF Plant Science have been granted permission for crop trials on genetically modified potatoes in Borrowash, Derbyshire and Girton, Cambridgeshire, now seemed like a good time to add a link to those excellent people at GM Watch (formerly NGIN). No doubt we are in for another round of government and corporate spin. GM Watch is a good resource with research on who benefits most from the promotion of GM food, who funds the lobby groups and campaigns and the backgrounds of the leading pro-GM figures.

This crop has obviously been carefully chosen as a "thin end of the wedge" (a potato wedge? :)) - i.e a modification based on material from another crop in the potato family (nothing too scarily transgenic) and designed to combat Potato Blight (to try and get British farmers on board)We should not be fooled by this PR based move and should remember the true nature of the GM industry - from GM Watch -

British Member of Parliament, Alan Simpson, suggests the antipathy towards organic farming needs to be seen in a wider context, ''The pursuit of knowledge for public or environmental safety has already been ditched in favour of a culture which says we will pursue knowledge for the purpose of commercial gain, and anything that steps in the path will either be excluded or suppressed.'

The Report of the Royal Society of Canada's Expert Panel on the Future of Biotechnology (published February 2001) noted with concern the growing evidence of university researchers building 'unprecedented ties with industry partners' and the 'profound impact' this is having.

A study by the UK's Institute of Professionals, Managers and Civil Servants showed that one in three government-funded laboratories had been asked to modify their conclusions or advice to suit the customer's preferred outcome. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that clinical research into cancer drugs is eight times more likely to reach a positive conclusion when funded by drug companies than when publicly funded.

But public funding is itself becoming increasingly corporatised. This is a world where government funding agencies are dominated by industry-linked scientists

Here is what the Green Party of England and Wales has to say on GM foods.