EU approves use of BASF’s controversial GMO potato

The European Commission on Tuesday announced two decisions concerning the Genetically Modified Amflora potato: the first authorises the cultivation of Amflora in the EU for industrial use, developed by BASF, and the second relates to the use of Amflora’s starch by-products as feed. Amflora contains a gene that produces an enzyme which generally confers resistance to several antibiotics, including kanamycin, neomycin, butirosin, and gentamicin. The antibiotics could become “extremely important” to treat otherwise multi-resistant infections and tuberculosis, the European Medicines Authority (EMA) warned, according to the Independent newspaper. Drug resistance is part of the explanation for the resurgence of TB, which infects eight million people worldwide every year. The European Commission said it also adopted today three decisions on the placing on the market of three GM maize products for food and feed uses but not for cultivation. All five authorisations were subjected to the highest scrutiny, the EU said, ensuring all concerns regarding the presence of an antibiotic resistance marker gene are fully addressed. “The Decision to authorise the cultivation of Amflora is the end of a process which started in Sweden in January 2003 and is based on a considerable volume of sound science,” it said. Some media reported less enthousiastic voices: The introduction of a genetically modified potato in Europe risks the development of human diseases that fail to respond to antibiotics …