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

NO! to GM potato trials in the UK - Norfolk

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 Norfolk, and sets out grounds for objecting and requesting the rejection of the application to grow GM potatoes in Nofolk, as well as conditions that should be placed on the trial should go ahead.

Background

The Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre, Norwich has applied to Defra to conduct field trials of GM potatoes engineered to resist late potato blight. These potatoes contain genes from a potato relative from South America. They are different from the genes in BASF's GM blight resist potatoes field tested near Cambridge in 2007 and 2008, and different to the GM potatoes proposed to be trialled in Leeds.

The release of GM potatoes would commence from 1 May 2010 and run to 30 November 2010 and continue for a further 2 years until 2012. The release would take place at the John Innes Centre, Norfolk, in an area of 1,000 square metres with 200 square metres used each year for GM potatoes with not more than 200 GM plants per year.

There is no need for GM to address this problem, nor is there any market for GM potatoes, so this trial should not go ahead.