VATIS UPDATE Article

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have approved three types of potatoes genetically engineered to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine as safe for the environment and safe to eat. The approval gives J.R. Simplot Company, the United States, permission to plant the potatoes this spring and sell them in the fall.

Simplot said the potatoes contain only potato genes, and that the resistance to late blight, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine, comes from an Argentine variety of potato that naturally produced a defense. The three varieties are the Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet and Atlantic. They’ve previously been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All three varieties “have the same taste and texture and nutritional qualities” as conventional potatoes, said Doug Cole, at Simplot.

Late blight thrives in the type of wetter conditions that led to the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Potatoes were a main staple, but entire crops rotted in the field. Historical records say about a million people died of starvation and disease, and the number of Irish who emigrated might have reached several million. The most recent federal approvals apply to Simplot’s second generation of Innate potatoes.