By Michael Hogan
Germany's state food safety agency approved open-air field trials of
sugar beet and potatoes containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The company Planta has been given permission to sow 12,000 square
metres of GMO sugar beet at two locations between 2008 and 2011, agency BVL
said.
BASF Plant Science, part of German chemicals group BASF, has been
given approval to plant GMO potatoes on 30,000 square metres divided among
three locations between 2008 and 2012.

"The BVL's safety assessment came to the conclusion that the open-air
trials would not have any dangerous influence on humans or animals or the
environment," the agency said.

The crops may not be sold as food or animal feed.

The GMO sugar beet in the trials is resistant to the weed killer
glyphosat.

To prevent GMO organisms being spread by pollen, Planta must check
sugar beets every two weeks for flowering and destroy any flowers before
they bloom, the agency said. There must be a 10-metre gap between the GMO
potatoes and conventional crops.

The potatoes were being tested for resistance to several and for their
starch content, it said.

The European Union has legalised commercial production of several GMO
maize varieties but field trials on other GMO crops require approval from
national governments.

German farmers have registered intentions with the BVL to plant 4,413
hectares of GMO maize commercial production in the 2008 crop, up from 2,753
ha harvested in 2007, the agency said in March.
Although up on the year, the total is only a negligible part of German
annual maize cultivation of around 1.8 million ha.


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