www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The Government has granted permission for genetically modified potatoes to
be grown in the UK, December 2006.

The trials of blight-resistant crops will be held at two sites - one in
Derbyshire and one in Cambridgeshire.

Biotech company BASF Plant Sciences will start growing the GM potatoes in
spring 2007.

The trials will last for several years, and the first commercially available
crops could be on offer within a decade.

Green campaigners are likely to oppose the move on the grounds of the
trials' unknown environmental impact.

The crops will be sown in a maximum one hectare space at each of the two
sites.

BASF corporate communications manager Chris Wilson said: "The trial is to
evaluate the new blight-resistant GM potato under UK farming and climate
conditions.

"Nothing from these trials will be eaten. The potatoes grown will be tested
under carefully controlled conditions and then destroyed.

"The possibility of a food crop from it is maybe 10 years down the line."

www.checkbiotech.org

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