Yesterday an EU Advocate-General sided with French seed organization Kokopelli on the provision in EU law prohibiting the sale of unregistered varieties.

In reference to EU seed laws and related French regulations, the Advocate-General said they

“violate the principle of proportionality, free enterprise, free movement of goods, and the principle of non discrimination.”

The Advocate-General said the official seed catalog has

“nothing to do with plant health”

and

“it is up to farmers to decide which varieties they grow”

the Advocate-General added

“the fact that farmers are confined to the listed varieties greatly reduces genetic diversity in European fields.”

Unfortunately the original opinion was written in German, and as of the time of this post had not yet been translated into English.  You can read the opinion in a variety of non-English languages here.

Almost all of Kokopelli’s arguments were upheld, and most of the opposition’s arguments were not.

This time they assure us no one could possibly object to the trial.  They say they will remove the tassels before the plants produce pollen so contamination of the nearby environment won’t be possible.  They also say there will be no business interests, it will only be a project of the university.  Hm, I wonder if the university has any business connections itself…

An important message from the organizers of the resistance:

[EN] Hello,

Yesterday we learned that the VIB is requesting authorisation for a field trial for GM maize in Wetteren. This crop would be launched in a three year open field trial, from 2012 on. A public consultation is organised which is open till 21 January.

It’s very important to respond individually to this consultation by using the special form for this purpose.

Below you find links to useful documents, press articles and a dossier that aims to develop some arguments on this case.

http://fieldliberation.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/rough-reader-on-the-new-vib-maize-crop.pdf

The pdf is just a personal summary of some facts and possible context around that sudden new field trial. To be used freely, as extra inspiration for replying at the inquiry, for an article, an action, or a campaign…

For more information see their website.

See here to respond to the consultation, but be aware as of the time of this post, the English language form wasn’t available.  Keep trying!  Let’s send some web traffic their way and let them know we’re eager, even before the form becomes available.

I was looking around for other films made by Ella von der Haide, the same person who made Resilient Seed the film about our Brussels action last spring, and I came across this.  What a find!  This is a really interesting look into Community Gardens in South Africa, and the sorts of problems they face.

Thanks to Mike who mentioned these videos in a comment on my last post.  These videos are of Dan Jason of Salt Spring Seeds and The Plant Sanctuary for Canada, and Owen Bridge of Annapolis Valley Seeds, representing Canada’s two coasts at a Seedy Sunday event from earlier this year.

It’s really a great example on how in different parts of the world we have slightly different battles and laws, but in the end our overall problems and goals are the same.  Here is Europe we are fighting the battle of legalizing seed saving, but in North America they’re not only fighting to keep seed saving legal, but also facing the real prospect of aggressive police action if they are unsuccessful.

Recently some laws were changed in Canada and other parts of the world like Europe to protect the pharmaceutical industry from the competition of natural foods and herbal remedies.  This resulted in raids in Canada where unlicensed vitamins were confiscated by swat teams at gunpoint.  It’s very possible heirloom seed companies will one day see their stocks of seeds confiscated in the same way.

We all need to act locally and think globally.  We should grow seeds in our own gardens that are locally obtained and suitable for our local climate, but we shouldn’t forget seeds can be obtained elsewhere if necessary.  In the same way, we should be fighting our own battles locally, but not forgetting there’s a whole world out there with other people fighting the same battle.

Source by Loch Ness Water Gardens

A few Dutch cities with particularly dangerous and complicated intersections have apparently pretty successfully implemented the ‘hands off’ approach, and removed all signals and warning signs.  This is in the theory that everyone approaching a dangerous situation tends to see it, slow down and be more careful.  Apparently having too many signs is a distraction.  A lot of attention has been paid to these recently.

Anyway, the question comes up from time to time, how did the Dutch get their amazing network of bicycle paths, which can be found everywhere in the country?  If you’re like me perhaps you might think it’s just a natural thing, because the country is so flat or because cycling is so popular.  Actually, there’s a story about this, and a lesson to be learned.  Here’s a video I found recently.

*GATHERING CALL *
*Thursday 20 October 2011 from 12.00 pm to 2.00 pm*
*In front of the UPOV**building*
*(Union internationale pour la protection des obtentions végétales)*
*34, Chemin des Colombettes – Geneva*

*For the immediate recognition of farmers’ right to re-use and Exchange freely their seeds, to protect them from biopiracy and contaminations from patented genes. No to seeds multinationals’ grip!*

*No to the 1991 Proprietary Variety Protection Act, to any form of patent on plants, part of plants, their genes or extraction processes.*

Since 1991, the UPOV seeks to forbid farmers to use part of their own crop for seeds, or to force them to pay royalties to companies holding a Plant Variety Certificate. Yet, any of the seeds sold by the industry is still a product of seeds collected at no cost in the fields of farmers who have selected and preserved for millennia all food plants we feed on to this day. The Convention on Biological Diversity did introduce in 1992 in Rio the principle of a fair sharing of advantages which should force companies to pay farmer’s whose seeds were used as resources. Today, the UPOV seeks to apply at any rate its reverse sharing where it is the bio-pirated farmer who has to pay the bio-pirate!

*Yet, the right of farmers to re-use and exchange their seeds is essential for crops’ adaptation to climate change and local adaptation, which is the only way to decrease the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It ensures the security of seeds stocks and thus of food security. *

The growing number of patents on natural genes, muted or manipulated, of commercial seeds already protected by Plant Variety Certificate reinforces further the confiscation of all seeds of our planet by a handful of seeds multinationals that seize peoples’ right to food. The detrimental alliance of the UPOV and the Patents Office threatens directly food sovereignty.

*Come on and join us:*

*Farming Mystica, theatrical sketches, pacific and militant actions are awaiting you there!*

Contacts :

Uniterre, Swiss member of the European Coordination Via Campesina +41 21 601 74 67 www.uniterre.ch
European Coordination Via Campesina Rue de la Sablonnière 18- 1000 Bruxelles-Belgium- www.eurovia.org

Please RSVP

I don’t do many posts on request, but I guess this is an exception.

In 2009 I wrote this post and mentioned I was going to use vinegar to try to kill the weeds in the gravel.  At the time I was hoping for feedback from others who had tried something similar.  Not only did I not get a lot of feedback, but pretty soon I gave up on the vinegar.  It took a lot of vinegar, and it wasn’t really working very well.  Since I made that post however, I’ve been getting a lot of traffic via Google, from people looking for solutions to weeds in gravel paths.  Rather then let all those people end up on a post that lays out something that doesn’t work, I thought I would make an updated post here with what I find works well!

We have gravel paths all over our community garden complex, and the picture above is one that hasn’t been maintained in a few months.  You can see it’s pretty well covered with weeds.  You notice there are gardens on both sides, so the weeds either escape from the gardens next to the path, or more likely are from seeds blown by the wind.  In a situation like this, I find a weed burner works pretty well to control the weeds.

Below is a picture of a similar path as the one above, but where I’ve been using a weed burner regularly to burn the weeds.

I last used the weed burner here a few weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure the gardeners on the sides have pulled a few weeds by hand too.  You can see the weed burner is not perfect, but it does a pretty good job and is a lot easier than doing it completely by hand.  The entire path in this picture, all the way to the end, takes about an hour to do with a weed burner and if the weeds are kept under control it only needs to be done every month or two during the growing season.  Once it gets to the point of the path in the top picture, it has to be done weekly for a few months, until the weeds are under control.

The weed burner only burns off the tops of the weeds, and doesn’t kill them right away.  It takes going over them a few times before they die completely.  Some weeds aren’t killed by the weed burner, and have to be pulled by hand, but these are mostly the larger and easier to pull weeds.  You also have to give some thought to what you have alongside the path, and in particular avoid flammable things like dry mulch or dry rotted wood.  You also can’t use the weed burner in dry weather or when fire is otherwise a hazard.

As a rule it works better to make a number of quick passes over the path, a few days or a week or two apart, rather than one intensive burn.  When you singe the tops of the plants, rather than turning them to ash, they are more likely to die completely over time.  This is because singeing damages them, and causes the plants to expend more resources trying to repair the damage.  Occasionally weeds respond better to having their tops burned off completely, and this tends to make the path look better, so it can help to do this from time to time too.

Above is an example of a path were the weed burner doesn’t work.  This path has a garden on the left, and a grassy patch on the right, with no barrier between the grass and gravel path.

You can see too the picture includes the path in front of two different gardens, the one in the back is not quite as diligent in digging the grass out, and the gardener in front I know has a system of chemicals for spraying on the path.  I don’t know what chemicals he uses, but he also says nothing he tried really works.

The weed burner just won’t kill the grass in this way.  All that happens is you spend hours burning and reburning the grass, and it just comes back.

Above is a section of path, with my garden on the left.  In this case, I burn the path in front of my garden, but not my neighbors garden.  While I’m an organic gardener, this neighbor is beyond organic, and doesn’t want any power tools used in his garden either.  He rightly considers the weed burner a power tool.

I’m not very diligent at burning in from of my own garden for some reason, and I hardly ever pull anything by hand that doesn’t get killed with the weed burner.  That’s why there are still a few weeds in front of my garden.  My neighbor can hardly be bothered to pull his weeds by hand.  It actually works okay in this way, and the weeds don’t really spread much to my side of the path.

In the picture above, from time to time I burn the path on the left.  One day I got into a big fight with the gardener on the right because I was burning his path (I previously had his agreement to do this), but he felt it was a too environmentally friendly way to get rid of the weeds.  He said it was only temporary, didn’t get all the weeds, that the weeds come back too quickly and RoundUp was the only real way to get rid of weeds in gravel.  He then got out his spray bottle of RoundUp and made a big point of spraying his path at the same time I was using the weed burner.

Since he made such a big obnoxious scene, and since I burn the paths around his so they look clean all the time, he’s under a lot of pressure to make sure his path stays clear or he’ll lose face.  He has to prove RoundUp is better than the weed burner!  He’s frequently out digging and redigging his path.  From time to time it also looks like he sprays it, but that doesn’t really work because it doesn’t kill everything and he still has a path of dead weeds he has to dig up later anyway.  You can see in the picture, his path has a lot of dug up dirt mixed in with the gravel, and it’s always about as green as it is in this picture.

I have heard from others that RoundUp doesn’t really work.  There’s always lots of discussion over alternatives, but I’ve never heard of anyone finding anything they found satisfactory.

The canals around the garden are really bad this year.  They are all full of algal blooms.

In some places the algae is so thick trash floats on it.

The water plants floating on top here look pretty healthy.  When the infestation is a little lighter the ducks and other water birds eat it.  I haven’t seen any water birds in the canals for months now.  Underneath the surface is slimy green algae.

I don’t know for sure what the cause of these algal blooms are, but I suspect they’re caused by excess phosphorus in the water, and probably excess manure being spread on the surrounding land.  Farmers pay land owners to accept their waste manure spread out on it, and this in turn contaminates the water.  Because of a soil test I did a few years ago, I already know there’s a lot of phosphorus in the ground and water.

Pig farmers in particular are known right now to be having a problem with excessive manure from their pigs.  I suspect this is where at least some of the problem is coming from.

Because the canals are so close to my garden, I suspect this is causing a lot of the problems I’ve been having lately with plants not growing well, and weeds like bindweed growing very quickly.  I understand bindweed grows in ground where something is interfering with the natural decomposition of organic material, and I suspect this is being caused by the lack of oxygen in the surrounding canals because of the algae growth.

I’ve been reading in the US, in particular the lakes of Wisconsin, there are similar problems with phosphorus and algal blooms.  The formula of dishwasher detergent was recently changed in the US to reduce the amount of phosphorus, which is a very American solution to the problem of factory farm waste.  Why not after all blame the consumer with something irrelevant?

If anyone complains about the change in formula of dishwasher detergent, you can look at them with a blank stare and ask them if they believe in unnecessarily polluting the environment, and if anyone complains about the factory farming you can tell them every thing is under control because the formula in dishwasher detergent has been changed.

Anyone else having problems with phosphorus pollution and algal blooms?

The spoken language is French, with English subtitles.

If you wish to download a version to play directly on your own computer, you can do that here. The original video without embedded subtitles can be downloaded here.

I’ve posted about this several times before.  Like here.

The more I watch this grow, the more interesting I find it.

It’s another ‘no-weed’ plant, like what I posted about earlier today.  It’s basically grass, and it’s no-weed like most of our lawns are.  It just forms a very thick root mass that almost no weeds can penetrate.  Like grass, I wouldn’t really expect there to be insect or disease problems.  Like grass it can be used as a forage crop, and in fact it grows about 2 meters high, and produces a lot of hay or straw.  For gardeners it’s a useful source of mulch.

It will literally grow anywhere grass grows.  It’s not uncommon to find unselected rye grasses in lawn seed mixes, and rye is not an uncommon component of people’s lawns.  It’s the thicker bladed grass most of us are familiar with.

Okay, I can hear you asking.  If it’s like grass and grows where grass grows, what makes it interesting?  What makes it interesting is that you can eat it!  Literally, anywhere grass grows, this is a drop-in replacement you can eat.

So let me repeat.  Replaces grass, including people’s lawns, is weed, insect and disease free, hardly requires any care, and you can eat it.  When you’re done eating it, any animals you might have can eat it.

If you were to create a major food for a sustainable future, what would you do different?

You can find the original Dutch language version here.

Here is a reply from the scientists who opposed the demonstration.

The original Dutch language version is here.

Here’s a quote from the second letter:

Sleep comfortable
Just think: what carries the least risk to humans and the environment? A potato with well-characterized resistance genes (the GM version) or a potato with the same genes in it and also a lot of other genes that we all know nothing (and bionica and toluca example)? If you do not see dangers in the use of bionica and toluca varieties, sleep on both ears in terms of the GM potato.

Part of the strange language here is the translation from Dutch, and I’ve fixed it a little by hand, but the point is clear.  From a scientist’s point of view — fewer genetics are better.  The traditionally bred blight resistant varieties Bionica and Toluca are dangerous to plant, because they have too many unknown and not useful genes in them!  Really?

The only way forward is monocultures, and as little biodiversity as possible?  Otherwise humans and the environment are at risk?  If you don’t agree, sleep comfortably on both ears?  This is like president Bush telling the world they were either with him or against him in Iraq.  I don’t think this is the basis for common ground.

For the sake of clarity, I’m only including a few quotes of the original post and comments, and I would encourage anyone reading this to have a look at the original post linked to above, and convince yourself I’m not taking anything unfairly out of context.  Maybe you’ll get an insight into how ‘the other side’ thinks??  I dunno…

French anti-science vandals invade a Belgium farm and destroy crops

Phytophthora infestans causes ‘late blight’ in potatoes. In regions of potato cultivation with a temperate climate, like Belgium, this is the single most dangerous disease. The disease costs farmers in Belgium about 55 million euros annually, and controlling it causes significant environmental pressure. However, in the last few years a number of resistant varieties based on conventional plant breeding techniques were introduced to the market, and work is being done on developing genetically modified Phytophthora-resistant lines.

These GM plant are environmentally much more friendly than some existing  methods of treating fungus attack on plants  such as the commonly used toxic copper sulphate.

But the GM potatoes will not be used if the anti-GM fanatics have their way.
A research field trial of these blight-resistant potatoes has just been destroyed in Belgium.
Some anti-technology activists came by bus from France to destroy the fields.

Okay, where to start.  First of all the participants were primarily Belgian.

In Belgium three languages are commonly spoken French, Flemish/Dutch and English.  The first two are languages of the neighboring countries France and The Netherlands, as well as native languages of the Belgian people.  English is a sort of neutral language, as well as being the language most people from other countries speak.  When promoting the event, it’s logical the promotion would be in these three languages.  They were trying to promote the event both in Belgium and abroad.

The vast majority of participants, many of them known by me personally, were from Belgium.  The main organizer was a Flemish/Dutch speaking Belgian.  I know this from listening to the accents and languages spoken in the videos I posted, by reading news reports and blog post on the Internet, and from private email correspondence.  Trust me, it would have been big news if large numbers of people had come in from France for an event like this, and no mention of it has been made anywhere except on Biofortified.

The link provided on Biofortified points to a website in France promoting the event in French.  There’s no indication anywhere unusually large numbers of people came from France as a result of this promotion.

As far as being anti-science vandals, what about the scientists in the action?  For example Barbara van Dyck, who lost her job at the Catholic University of Leuven for participating.  Perhaps if you support her termination from the university, you should send an email stating she was ‘anti-science’ as a reason and see if it helps?  I wonder if the truth was more the demonstrators were not so much anti-science, but rather anti this author’s version of science.  I think in fact most participants consider themselves very strong proponents of science.  My position is certainly pro-science.

While it’s very true Phytophthora costs Belgian farmers lots of money, the problem is really a lack of promotion of the already available Phytophthora resistant varieties, and lack of investment in developing new traditionally bred resistant lines.  Consumers do not want GM potatoes, and there is no legitimate reason to develop them except to force consumers to accept something they don’t want.  There is also strong pressure from the agri-chemical industry to continue promoting non-resistant varieties, until such time as GM varieties are available to take their place, because there are lots of profits in selling the chemicals used to combat Phytophthora.

The reality is in a few years the chemicals used to combat Phytophthora will be phased out in Europe, because they are too damaging to the environment.  This measure has already been passed by the European Parliament. The large agricultural interests hope at that time the only viable varieties available will be GM resistant varieties. There is no truth to the idea that the GM potatoes are ‘better for the environment’, they are simply being developed for commercial reasons.

The use of copper sulphate really has very little to do with this discussion or with Phytophthora on potatoes.  It’s true copper sprays can be used to combat Phytophthora, and it’s true this is used in Europe.  Copper sprays happen to be illegal in The Netherlands, one of the largest potato growing regions.  Copper sprays are also of limited use with potatoes.  Copper is mostly used on grape vines in places like Italy and France, or on tomatoes.

The reason copper sprays are of limited use with potatoes, is they are relatively expensive compared to the crop produced as well as Phytophthora is not an immediately fatal disease, or as the author on Biofortified says ‘dangerous’ disease, in organic agriculture.  There are a variety of techniques that can be used to manage Phytophthora without chemicals, like removing infected haulms.  These methods are not practical in large scale mono-cultures, but neither is wide scale spraying of copper based chemicals.  I wonder if the author on Biofortified has ever grown potatoes?

• Talking to activists about the science didn’t work.

Jo Bury, the director of the VIB science research institute that planted the potatoes, said around 100 scientists had tried to talk the actists out of vandalism.

“We are deeply shocked about the violent actions by the activists of the Field Liberation Movement. The field trial with blight resistant potatoes was almost entirely destroyed. Our hearts are with the scientists whose hard work was destroyed today.”

“Althought his is a dark day for science as a whole, we want to thank all 350 scientists and farmers who came out and supported Save Our Science. It was a strong message to the world that we believe that science has an important role to play in the development of environmental friendly agriculture” Geert Angenon, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Geert De Jaeger, UGent, Rony Swennen, K.U.Leuven, Jeroen Crappé.

Okay, no clue.  No mention of a counter-demonstration anywhere in anything I’ve read.  This is the first I’ve heard of it.  There’s little doubt in my mind that the scientists involved in the trials were probably present, and maybe some others.  I think this would be pretty normal.  But a larger number of ‘pro-science’ scientists than Field Liberation people?  That’s a little funny, and certainly no more than a pipe-dream.

As far as the 100 scientists trying to talk the demonstrators out of it, what does that mean exactly?  As I read what this author wrote, it seems to suggest 350 scientists showed up but only 100 tried to talk the Field Liberation people out of it.  What about the other 250?

Did the attempt to talk the Field Liberation people out of it occur in advance?  Was there anything published in writing on their position?  Certainly if their arguments were the same as this author, they would have fallen on deaf ears.

The reality is many people behind the Field Liberation Movement are themselves scientists, farmers and otherwise very intelligent people and current in their fields.  I’m certain they would welcome sensible public debate on the issues, and are well prepared to hold their own.

7 comments to French anti-science vandals invade a Belgium farm and destroy crops

GregH:

It’s funny how people are always railing against GMOs claiming their reasoning herbicides this and Bt that and Monsanto the other thing, while saying they’re not against the science, they just want more research. I assume there will be a huge outcry among the anti-GMO people for destroying the research (which appears to be government funded non-corporate) they claim they want done on the traits they don’t claim to find fault with….right after they get around to objecting the destruction of those French government run virus resistant GM grape rootstocks a while back.

daedalus2u:

The standard objections of anti-GMO activists don’t apply in this case. Potato is not native to Europe, there are no near-relative weedy species that it can cross pollinate with. Commercial potato isn’t propagated by seed, it is propagated clonally by bits of root. The traits can’t spread by pollen to other fields or contaminate other potato crops.

GregH:

These are the same people who trashed GM grape rootstocks. Yeah, rootstocks, so not even the flower or fruit were genetically engineered. I think it’s safe to say the standard objections are really just lame excuses for common thugs to break something. Must make them feel real big. They’re probably laughing it up and patting themselves on the back for the great blow they think they struck to Monsanto (the fact that this was not Monsanto’s research is likely lost on them).

Ben B:

Concerning this “research”, one row of potatoes was from BASF.
The “traditional’ arguments against GM are still functioning in this case : those potatoes are “pesticide patented clones”.
The industrialized “pesticide” system is responsible of an enormous part of today’s environmental disaster (more than half of GHG emissions due to our food and agri system, according to Olivier De Schutter, UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food + Soil erosion, oil-dependent unsustainable system), and those plants keep on pushing in this direction.
Patenting the living brings to corporate takeover on seeds, the most important thing on the food chain (more infos http://www.grain.org/docs/trips.pdf). Our economic system hates what’s free, like nature’s work on plants. If privatizing life is a synonymous of “progress”, then we’re going forward at high speed.
Clones in the fields means biodiversity loss, more diseases, threats on health.
The “usual” arguments of pro-GM people imply to continue in the system responsible for today’s economic (farmers situation in developed countries), social (one billion persons starving) and environmental (agri and food system responsible for more than 50% of GHG emissions) disasters, claiming that it will bring solutions. We may have a small problem of coherency…
Whereas solutions exist. Sustainable small scale family farming can feed the world – even with 10 billion persons. Actually, it already does… The main problem is repartition of food produced (70% of world agricultural land directly or indirectly for feeding cattle), eating habits (too much meat in developed countries), and production system.

Karl Haro von Mogel:

Oh no – one row of potatoes was from BASF? Then they must all be ripped out! Seriously, that is a bad reason. If BASF has a blight-resistant potato then it is entirely appropriate to evaluate it alongside other varieties.
The rest of your comment demonstrates that you don’t know how potatoes are grown – potato varieties are all clones of one good plant, produced through tubers. Even your favorite old varieties grown on organic farms are clones.

daedalus2u:

Where to start, so much misinformation. The genes for resistance came from wild relatives of potato. These genes have been introduced via cross-breeding in other strains of potato.

The idea behind using these natural resistance genes is so that the use of synthetic fungicides is reduced or even eliminated. Isn’t the reduction of use of synthetic pesticides a good thing?

You can’t just stop using fungicides on potatoes if they are not resistant because the entire crop can be destroyed. This fungus is what caused the Irish potato famine which killed over a million people from starvation because it destroyed the potato crop.

Commercially grown potatoes are always clonal.

Growth of potato strains other than these clonal potatoes will not be affected. They may even benefit because these potatoes are resistant to the fungus, if they are planted they will not increase the growth, spread and persistence of the fungus which could affect non-resistant potatoes.

OrchidGrowinMan:

daedalus2u,

I agree: misinformation, catastrophization, emotional language and outright lies are all too common. People LIKE to be excited, but don’t like to grind through research. They LIKE to play the White Knight, but may need to invent a dragon to do so. It’s more exciting and feels more Noble to fight a Vast International Conspiracy than to address sewage treatment and drinking water contamination.

I think a lot of the problem is related to the game of “Telephone”: Person 1 hears that there may be a possibility of a slight risk of a minor side-effect, and passes that information on. Person 342 hears that there is a virtual certainty of a global catastrophe, and communicates this to Person 1, and the cycle continues.

Credulity, poor understanding of statistics, science, and risk-assessment and the excitement of being a member of a Just Cause combine to generate a population resistant to reassessing their positions and who are sometimes effectively manipulated, and not in a good way.

I think the comments mostly speak for themselves.  I agree, misinformation.   I have sympathy for BenB.  How can you soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys?  I’ll correct a few errors.

First of all the genes used in these GM potatoes are from very poisonous wild relatives genetically incompatible with ordinary potatoes.  They can’t cross breed as far as I know and certainly there was no attempt to get them into ordinary potatoes with traditional breeding.  Isn’t this of concern to some people reading this?  Genes from poisonous wild relatives, inserted into something intended for food, without any credible public or peer reviewed safety testing?

And it pains me to have to say this, but yes potatoes are propagated by tuber or meristem cloning, but you don’t have to grow them in monocultures!  Like any other crop you can work with a number of different varieties and inter-crop them with other plants.  The GM potatoes are being developed for use in monocultures, and it’s the intention we become dependent on a small number of patented genes to protect one of the worlds most important crops from a repeat of the Irish Potato Famine.

Does it help us all to know how the other side thinks?