***this consultation is now closed, but the briefing and other information are still available for you at the links below***

Further Action:

This proposal was accepted by Defra on Saturday, 27 March.

If you feel strongly about this we encourage you to write to your sitting MP before Parliament is dissolved (12 April 2010) or to your new MP after the General Election.

As is usual, a number of conditions were attached to the acceptance of the proposal. Conditions related to our concerns include:

Regarding control of groundkeepers

Condition 6

The consent holder must:

(1) harvest the trial as soon as practical after research results have been obtained in order to minimise the shedding of true potato seed;

(2) harvest potato tubers according to good agricultural practice to avoid groundkeepers and ensure that harvested tubers are removed from the trial site before the 30th November in each year of the release period.;

(3) remove, as far as is practically achievable all tubers, and if seed set may have occurred, potato tops (above ground green parts) from the trial site before the 30th November in each year of the release period and transfer them for contained use or disposal in accordance with

Condition 7

(4) ensure that all equipment used for planting and harvesting of potatoes within the trial site is cleaned thoroughly before leaving the trial site;

(5) in the two years following final harvest of the GMOs, leave the trial site fallow and refrain from ploughing the land. Shallow tillage should be used at least annually to stimulate germination of any true potato seed which has been shed;

(6) treat all groundkeepers and volunteers during the period referred to in Condition 6(5) with an application of glyphosate herbicide, or by manual hand-digging, and remove and transfer from the site prior to flowering and in accordance with Condition 7. In subsequent years appropriate herbicides, or manual hand-digging to remove all tubers, must be used to control groundkeepers and volunteers prior to flowering.

(7) during the post harvest monitoring period referred to in Condition 8(2) i.e. the period following harvest until 2 consecutive years when no ground keepers or volunteers have been found, refrain from cultivating potatoes or any plant species in which volunteers are difficult to identify or control;

and these conditions apply to all plants planted at the trial site, including non-GMOs.

Regarding material removed from the trial site

Condition 7

The consent holder must ensure that all potato plant material removed from the trial site under condition 6 is placed in sealed, labelled bags or containers for transfer to conditions under which the Genetically Modified (Contained Use) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000/2831), as amended, apply or to an authorised waste disposal facility for disposal by deep burial or incineration.

NO! to GM potato trials in the UK - Leeds

We have produced a briefing to help you object to proposed field trial of GM potatoes in the UK. It provides details of an application to release GM potatoes in Yorkshire, and sets out grounds for objecting and requesting the rejection of the application to grow GM potatoes in Yorkshire, as well as conditions that should be placed on the trial should go ahead.

The deadline for objections (the reference is 09/R31/1)  is 5 March 2010. 

Background

The Centre for Plant Sciences at the University of Leeds has applied to Defra to conduct field trials of GM potatoes engineered to resist potato cyst eelworm or potato cyst nematode (PCN).

This is a different GM potato to the one previously trialled in 2008 (see our February 2008 briefing Objecting to an Application to Trial GM Potatoes in Yorkshire for more information about that trial), and different to the potatoes proposed to be trialled in Norfolk, but many of the problems are the same.

The trials would commence from 1 May to 3 November 2010 and continue for 3 years until 2012. They would take place at the Leeds University Farm at Tadcaster, North Yorkshire covering not more than 1,000 square metres with up to 4,000 GM plants per year.