The European Commission approved BASF’s genetically engineered Amflora potato for cultivation in the European Union in March 2010.  Amflora is now grown in open fields in Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.  The Amflora potato has been engineered to contain the nptil gene, “an antibiotic resistance marker gene for neomycin and kanamycin.”  If the antibiotic resistance is transferred from the potato cells to bacteria infecting humans, it could be dangerous by reducing the effectiveness of these antibiotics.

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has investigated how this decision was made and learned that there was a “fierce lobbying battle by BASF,” including an “avalanche of letters,” threats by BASF to relocate outside of the EU, and threats of legal action.  CEO also found that more than half of the approving panel had conflicts of interest.  The conflicts ranged from receiving research funding from the biotech industry to “writing or reviewing industry-sponsored publications.”  Some of the panel members were actually involved in the creation of the potatoes with antibiotic resistance.  Even though the panel did not include any medical experts, the panel decided that “neomycin and kanamycin were antibiotics with ‘no or only minor therapeutic relevance.'”  However, the World Health Organization (WHO) did label these antibiotics as “critically important” in 2005.

Last year’s approval appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt an expected European Union directive “which sought to phase out the use of antibiotic resistance marker genes which may have adverse effects on human health and the environment.”

Why is this important?  The potato will only be grown in Europe, right?  We won’t have any of these antibiotic resistant potatoes here?  We don’t have Africanized honey bees, South American pythons, or piranhas either, do we? Would we have an input if our government wanted to approve the antibiotic resistant potato?  Wouldn’t the biotech industry lobby our government in the same way it pressured the European panel?  For twenty years many genetically engineered crops have been approved for cultivation in the U.S., including soybeans, corn, sugar beets, cotton, and, as of 2011, alfalfa, all without adequate, independent testing of the safety for humans, or even animals.  In fact, the vast majority of soy (94%) and corn (66%) produced in the U.S. is already genetically engineered, and most of us eat it every day–over 75% of processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients. The FDA has forbidden labels that give any information about GMOs, including forbidding labeling that says the product does not contain GMOs, claiming such labels would just confuse the consumer.

See my previous posts What Does Genetically Engineered (or GMO) Mean? and GMO Foods Should Be Labeled for more information.

Additional resources:
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance/GMOs
Corporate Europe Observatory, Approving the GM potato: conflicts of interest, flawed science and fierce lobbying; CEO’s Amflora conflict of interest report; The declarations of interest for EFSA’s 2009 GMO Panel; The scientific expertise of ENTRANSFOOD; and BASF’s letters to the Commission