New GM potato gets U.S. approval
Although McDonalds has stated that it has no current plans to utilize GM potatoes, and other fast-food giants still use traditionally bred varieties, the USDA’s deregulation of Innate still marks a victory for GM proponents.
Approval in Canada is likely a distant prospect, however. Depending on market acceptance over time, genetically modified potatoes could be grown here commercially. But consumer perceptions are still largely negative to GM potatoes.
GM potatoes
GM potatoes have technically been around for several decades. In the mid-1980s, the International Potato Centre (CIP) and Louisiana State University developed a higher-protein GM potato, but according to Peter VanderZaag, president and CEO of Sunrise Potato in Alliston, Ont., and international advisor to the World Potato Congress, this potato is still sitting on a shelf somewhere.
In the mid-1990s, Monsanto developed its “NewLeaf” potato, bred transgenically, or through the artificial insertion of genetic materials. NewLeaf was tried by several farmers but was rejected by the fast food industry.
Vikram Bisht, plant pathologist for Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (MAFRD), says Innate potatoes are produced by the insertion of specific natural genes from sexually compatible cultivated or wild potatoes into desirable potato varieties (in this case, Russet Burbank, Ranger and Atlantic varieties, along with two proprietary chipping varieties).
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