Anti-GM protestors rallied outside the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norwich last week against a potato trial at the centre.

More than 30 police oversaw a largely peaceful protest outside The Sainsbury Laboratory at the JIC on Saturday while the potato industry attempted to fight its corner.

Protestors claim the trials have been “secretive and unaccountable”, a statement the JIC refutes stating that an advert in a national newspaper and a published grid map for the trial plot on the DEFRA website.

Several key figures in the potato trade came out in support of the three-year project which began last year and has included public open days to attempt to engage consumers in the positive side of the GM debate.

The aim of the trial is to test whether resistance genes from wild potatoes will enable plants to once again recognise when they are under attack.

The genes enable plants to recognise a pathogen and kick-starts the plant’s natural defence mechanisms, the JIC said.

The trial is funded by the UK’s Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) with no funding from industry which has been intimated.

Professor Jonathan Jones of the JIC said: “We want to help achieve a low-impact, sustainable food production system for ourselves and our children.”

“We have hosted events for members of the public to visit the trial plot and some of the visitors told us they were surprised at how much we share with GM opponents the goal of reducing chemical inputs into the environment.”

One protestor said: “British trials of genetically modified blight resistant spuds have been failing for the last ten years. But a conventionally bred variety of blight resistant potatoes has been available for three years. So why are we still paying for their dangerous experiment?”

“The earliest UK trials of GM blight resistant potato by BASF began in 2007. The The Sainsbury Laboratory trials began last year. These trials so far indicate that the technology works well,” a JIC spokesperson hit back.

Topics