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2012 GMO field trials in The Netherlands: potatoes and apples
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Saturday, 28 July 2012 17:01
In May the Dutch Bureau for Genetically Modified Organisms published the field trials with GMOs on their website. BASF Crop Science has 3 trial fields with the consumption potatoe Fortuna. Wageningen Agriculture University WUR tests in 4 municipalities DuRPh potatoes and number of GM appletrees in the open. Starch company AVEBE is for the first time in years not doing any field trials. Recently complaints of over 100 citizens and several nature protection foundations against one fo the permits were rejected because they were considered inadmissible. ASEED made a dossier with detailed information on the field trials, based on the BGGO permits database.
Fortuna potato of BASF
In the Netherlands BASF is doing field trials with the deepfry potato Fortuna near Boompjesdijk in the municipality of Steenbergen (West-Brabant), along the Zuiderdiep in Valthermond in the municipality of Borger-Odoorn (Drenthe province), and south of Angeren, municipality of Lingewaard (Gelderland). Also in Sweden and Germany BASF is having trials with Fortuna and with starch potato Modena.
Fortuna is a potato of the variety Agria in which a cassette (package) of 2 genes has been inserted that make the plant more resistent against the fungus disease phytophthora or late blight. To be able to distinguish genetically altered plants from their normal relatives, also when the fungus infection is not visible, the ahas-gene of the zandraket has been inserted. This gene gives the plant tolerance for the weedkiller imidazolinone. This herbicide is allowed in Dutch agriculture but can be used inside the lab to see whether the a plant contains the inserted gene cassette or not: plant cells that die as a result of herbicide treatment were not succesfully modified.
Objective: market Fortuna later?
The field trials with Fortuna are being executed in cooperation with farmers who provide the plots and do part of the work in exchange for financial compensation. The plots are small, 1200-2800 tubers, on average 6 potato plants fit on one m2. They have been planted in May and will be harvested in October. The 2 trial permits are issued by Bureau GGO, part of the national environmental institute RIVM., and valid till 2018 and 2014 respectively.
The Fortuna trials do only serve to test the genetic manipulation. Main objective is to test all kinds of agronomic performance traits of the variety to be able to register it in the European seed catalogue and to claim breeder's rights. The variety has to express specific traits reliably under different breeding climates. These 2 registrations are necessary for bringing Fortuna on the market in Europe and to be able to claim intellectual property. Requirements for these kind of trials are very strict and execution is supervised by the NAK, the Dutch General Inspection for seeds and seedlings of agriculture crops.
In Januari BASF still announced to stop with the development of GMOs for the European market because there is too much resistance amongst consumers and food companies against the use of GMOs. In this perspective the pursueing of the Fortuna field trials is rather striking. “To keep all options open for our potato varieties, we will … continue with the ongoing approval procedures and the seedling production necessary for it,” said Dr. Peter Eckes, President of BASF Plant Science in April. Apparently the company intends to either sell the variety after market approval or will keep Modena and Fortuna in the shelve for a few years untill resistance has decreased and opportunities for GMOs in Europe have appeared.
BASF: the company behind the potato
BASF Crop Science is part of chemical concern BASF. In Europe the company has facilities in Ludwigshafen in Germany and in biotechnology parc Zwijnaarde in Ghent. Before BASF developed the industrial starch potato Amflora which has already been approved for cultivation in Europe. Last year the company tried to find potato breeder in the Netherlands for the production of Amflora seedlings. They failed as a result of the resistance against GM potatoes with the large potato traders Agrico and HZPC. These traders have a significantly strong position in the international potato seedling market and demand a signed guarantee that the seedlings they buy are GM free. Dutch seedling producers would risk their market access if they would start growing Amflora.
Furthermore, this starch potato is forbidden for cultivation in the areas of the Netherlands where typically starch potatoes are grown (Drenthe, Groningen) because she is too susceptible other potato diseases. Amflora cultivation here would risk the rest of the starch production of the Netherlands. Hence BASF did not manage to arrange any seedling production in The Netherlands. Past 2 years a limited acreage of Amflora was grown in other countries. This year BASF gave that up in Europe.
Besides the Fortuna BASF is also testing the starch potato Modena in Europe. This variety was developed by the Dutch starch company AVEBE, which gave the intellectual property rights of the potato to BASF in exchange for investments in her research and development department. Besides GM potatoes BASF also develops and sells the fungicides ametoctradin (brand name Initium), dimethomorph and mancozeb (active agents of Invader) that are used in potato cultivation.
The DuRPh potatoes of WUR
Researchers of Wageningen Agriculture University WUR are again doing field trials with the cisgenic DuRPH potato this year. Near Oudeschip in the municipality of Eemsmond (Groningen) and in Wageningen in Hoge Born and the Nude various traits are being tested and seedlings for future trials are being produced. On the fields near Lelystad, along the Lawickse Allee north of the field in the Nude in Wageningen and in Valthermond in the municipality of Borger-Odoorn different pest control strategies are being tried. They monitor the disease development on the plants very precisely. One of the used methods is the placement of cameras in the field that take pictures of the plants every hour. They are testing various DuRPH-varieties with 1 or more resistance genes.
In Belgium the VIB, the University of Ghent and the Institute for Agriculture and Fishery Research (ILVO) is also having a DuRPh field trial but Greenpeace protested formally against the provided permit. The potatoes have been planted already anyway. The objections include insufficient risk assessment and bias of the Bio Safety Council that advises the goverment on field trial permits. Four of the 12 council members have connections with the VIB, the UGent or ILVO. Eventhough this trial is executed by Belgian institutions, it is in fact part of the Dutch DuRPh project.
DuRPh is a special GMO project. It is a serious attempt to apply genetic engineering in a way that is acceptable for the general public. The potatoes are cisgenic, which means that only genes from the night shade family are used and no species boundaries are crossed. The objective is to achieve environmental gain in the sense that potato farmers will reduce the use of pesticide against late blight up to 80%. Furthermore, the researchers claim that WUR owns the patent on all used genes and can thus make the developed traits, potatoes and knowledge freely available. On request they can provide farmers and small potato breeders with desired resistances.
On the other hand, WUR is one of the biggest patent holders and depend for 50% of her financial resources on corporate contributions. This can be in the form of research assignments and consultancy, but also by selling patents on discoveries and technologies. The question has been raised before whether any DuRPh technology did not end up in the Fortuna of BASF; DuRPh and Fortuna potatoes were growing side by side on a trial field in the Belgian site of Wetteren (see the Dutch article on gentech.nl "Profiteert BASF met 'Fortuna' van Nederlandse aardgasbaten?", 9 nov. 2011, or the website of the Belgian Field Liberation Movement).
Meanwhile DuRPh scientists succesfully lobbyed Dutch and European politics to arrange for cisgenic crops exceptions in the safety testing regulations that are usually required for transgenic crops before release in the environment or the food chain. Recently the European food safety authority EFSA stated that cisgenic crops can be considered more equivalent to conventionally bred crops than to transgenic ones. Since the biggest risk in genetic engineering lies within the manipulation procedure and not in the origin of the inserted genes, this development created a stealth route for these GM potato into the market as “normal” potatoes.
Critical questions
The Fortuna has only 2 genes that provide resistance against late blight. One of the problems with this fungus disease is that it quickly adepts. Potato breeders manage regularly to develop a resistant variety through conventional methods, but most of the time it loses that trait in a few years because it is based on just a single gene. The objective of the DuRPh project is to end up with 3 or 4 resistance genes in the potato so that the fungus has to adept so many times it will die out before.
But those 2 genes in Fortuna, will they hold up long enough to eliminate the fungus indefinitely? Why then, are the Wageningen researchers not content with 2 resistance genes too? A well-known proverb says: "What does not kill you, only makes you stronger." So, with the somewhat limited resistance Fortuna might even increase the blight problem in the long run. Following the logic of evulation this could be the consequence. And that might give BASF after Amflora maybe even yet another GM failure. A financial debacle of 1.3 billion Euros. But the farmers are really the ones left to face the music: an even stronger fungus to fight. And the Wageningen potato fixers and farmer breeders have to continue their search for again new genes that make the potato resistent against this disease.