African federal officials have named three types of potatoes genetically engineered to fight the pathogen that caused Irish potato hunger - environmentally friendly and safe to eat.
The endorsement by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration late last week gives the Idaho-based JR Simplot permission to plant potatoes this spring and sell it in the fall.
The company said that potatoes only contain potato genes, and that resistance to late rot, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine, comes from an Argentinean potato variety that naturally created a defense.
In South America, where modern potatoes come from, its wild ancestor still grows.
Three varieties - Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet and Atlantic. They were previously approved by the USDA. All three varieties “have the same taste, texture and nutritional quality” as regular potatoes, said Simplot spokesman Doug Cole.
Late rot thrives in wetter conditions that led to Irish potato starvation in the 1840s. Potato was a staple food, but everything rotted in the field. Historical records indicate that about a million people died of starvation and disease, and the number of Irish immigrants may have reached several million.
Potatoes are now considered the fourth main food crop in the world after corn, rice and wheat. Late rot continues to be a major problem for potato growers, especially in more humid regions. Fungicides have been used for decades to prevent the disease.
Genetically engineered potato halves the use of fungicide.
- Early potato prices in Ukraine fell to their lowest level in 3 years.
- In Indian Bengal, a lingering rain destroyed almost the entire potato crop.
- Earlier, we wrote that foreign young potatoes appeared in Ukraine.
- NBU President Minnett Butters said Britain could face an unrealistic shortage of potatoes.
