GM Potato Blight trials to go ahead.

[Geoff]

KG August, article after yours by Bob Sherman on Soil Association research.

Lots of polystyrene in plant pots I think, not the most recyclable of plastics. I wonder how clay work out in carbon footprint terms by comparison.

[alan refail]

That a healthy plant or person are better able to fight off diseases is one of the founding principles of organic farming and why we are dedicated to promoting healthy soil. A strong, healthy crop grown in biologically active soil will be as resistant to as wide a range of diseases as possible – extensive research has shown this

The evidence that I am aware of suggests the opposite - as does my own experience. The blight pathogen is happiest when it is feeding off a well grown plant grown in a 'healthy soil'. When we want to encourage blight infection in our trials at SRT we make sure that we have plenty of nutrients in the soil and that we correct any nutrient deficiency.

When plants are under stress (drought, or low nutrients or cold or heat etc etc) they turn on a battery of genes which combat the stress. Some of these genes make the plant more resistant to disease. I have often observed that plants under nutrient stress (often happens in organic plantings but also in conventional plantings) are less affected by blight, lesions are smaller and sporulation on foliage is less.

In fact in an unhealthy soil, infection by a range of weak pathogens in the soil can induce plants to become more resistant, again by turning on these stress related genes. This is well researched and is referred to as Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR). It is a kind of plant immunisation.

Sorry to bring this subject up again, but I really would like to know who to believe. If David is correct, as I think, then the Soil Association are wrong.
It is sad that SA has not replied - or have they realised they were dogmatically claiming something they could not prove experimentally?

[glallotments]

I garden organically Johnboy and I have never experienced potato blight

Do you grow on an allotment or garden NB? - We don't get tomato blight in our garden and never had potato blight until our allotment site was fully occupied. If crops are just grown in your own environment then disease doesn't seem to spread as easily. A fully cultivated allotment site offers a disease corridor.

[alan refail]

Latest news of the trials.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/ne ... :02:35:720

[SimonJFoster]

Hi everyone,

I'm a scientist involved in this project here at the Sainsbury Laboratory.

Firstly apologies, I only just picked up that there was a discussion about our project with GM potatoes ongoing here. Always nice to see our work generating some discussion. I did contribute to a similar thread over at the 'Grow Your Own' forum and am more than happy to extend the same offer here and answer any questions you may have.

You have may have seen it already but we have a Q&A sheet about the trial available here: Late Blight Q&A (pdf version also available from that page)

If you're interested we also have a YouTube video describing how a GM potato is developed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1hC5mxLkIc

Simon.

[alan refail]

Hi Simon

Welcome to the KG forum. It will be good to have a scientific view of the process.

[Cider Boys]

Welcome to the forum Simon, I believe any clarification regarding GM would be beneficial to both the pro, anti or undecided factions.

Barney

[Johnboy]

Hi Simon,
Oh am I glad to hear from you! I welcome you with open arms.
I have been battling for a considerable time in favour of GM, not necessarily the commercial aspect, but the concept.
I am glad to hear that so far the trials seem to be going well but you will know so much more when all the data has been collated.
I wish you every success in your endeavours.
JB.

[SimonJFoster]

Many thanks all for your kind welcomes.

I took some time last night to have a look through the thread and it seems there is quite a nice balanced discussion going on. I couldn't immediately find any outstanding issues that I need to clarify but if I've missed a burning question that somebody had and hasn't been answered then please shout up and I'll do my best to provide an answer.

I must say it was nice to see David Shaw and the Soil Association contributing here. What's interesting is that all three organisations (Sainsbury Lab, Sarvari Trust and the SA) are all working towards the same goal of reducing chemical inputs into the environment. I think two of us realise that and are supportive of each others work.

[Johnboy]

Hi Simon.
Sadly I suspect that you have a Judas amongst the three names you have mentioned and regret to say there are no prizes for guessing who!
JB.

[alan refail]

Hi Simon

I'm sure you won't mind my posting this link to your TV interview on Look East.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-11151927

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
In the website the person from GM Watch is factually incorrect in what he says or suggests. He is saying that non GM research can do what GM has done in the research which is to insert a blight resistant gene into an existing popular variety of potato. As it stands with the Savari Trust Experiments they cannot do anything to an existing variety and all of there progeny are new varieties of potato. The difficulty with this conventional hybridizing is that they have to get the public to accept a new taste in potatoes and that is very difficult.
Who will win the battle between the Sarvo Varieties and GM Varieties is
something we will have to await with eager anticipation!
Of course I have no idea what David Shaw has up his sleeve and quite honestly I would like both his hybrids and the GM hybrids to be equally accepted.
JB.

[John Walker]

For information:

Press release: for immediate release 17 September 2010

Victory as Government cancels Food Standards Agency’s pro GM debate

The FSA planned to spend half a million pounds on a public engagement exercise about GM food which NGOs have widely condemned as biased. Two eminent Scientists, Professor Brian Wynne and Dr Helen Wallace had already resigned from the project steering group, saying the process was a sham - rigged towards attempting to encourage the public to support GM food and in favour of GM industry [1].

Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director said:

“The last Government tried persistently to pedal GM food to a sceptical public. It was outrageous that the FSA allowed themselves to be used to try and push GM food on the British people, and in doing so they once again departed from what is meant to be their role of defending the interests of consumers. The Government’s decision proves they are willing to let people decide what they eat, rather than trying to foist GM upon them.

There are two more things the Government should do. First, stop wasting public money on GM research – £20 million of tax payers money has gone into GM crop research since 1997 [2] but not a single GM crop is being grown in this country. Second, the Government should tell the Food Standards Agency to take steps to remove the blanket of secrecy over the last hiding place of GM from our food system, by insisting that milk and other dairy products, and meat, that come from animals fed on GM food, are clearly labelled.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

[1] Soil Association press release on Brian Wallace’s resignation from the FSA's steering group on GM:
http://www.soilassociation.org/News/New ... fault.aspx

[2] Response to a Parliamentary question re: GM research undertaken by defra:
http://services.parliament.uk/hansard/C ... rt011.html

[Johnboy]

John Walker,
If you take into account the amount of money paid to commercial growers to convert to organic growing over the years, the cost of the recent GM Blight trials pales into insignificance. What is even worse is the fact that the very many of those who took the organic grant money have since reverted back to conventional growing so this was public money totally wasted. The growers found that they could not work with the dogmatism that exists in organic world.
The GM Blight Trial seems to be a great success so far which is what had you and your ilk running scared!
JB.

[alan refail]

John Walker

You could have done us the favour of attributing your text to the Soil Association who issued it. I thought for some time that you had set yourself up as an independent anti-GM organisation.

In any case, what relevance does it have to research on blight-resistant potatoes? Assuming that you take the same dogmatic stance on GM as the SA, perhaps you could explain what is wrong, in your eyes, with properly conducted scientific trials . Or is the word "genetic" just anathema to you?

Oh yes, and I knew you were unlikely to confuse "peddle" with "pedal"