Discovery of naturally transgenic sweet potato poses conundrum: Will it be labelled or banned?

The discovery of transfer DNA (T-DNA) in sweet potato indicates horizontal transfer of genetic material from bacterium to plant.  The process is identical to that used in the generation of other transgenic plants, and transgenic plants bear the same bacterial DNA sequences used in the transfer process.

The sweet potato is thusly out of compliance with European Union standards, and must not be cultivated on organic farms. We must follow the Precautionary Principle, right?

Just because the rules make no sense and are poorly conceived is no reason to stop following them now.  We have known this for a long time, and we need to enforce the rules, after all, it’s for the children.

For me, it is sad because I love sweet potatoes, and don’t even get me going on how I can shove my face full of sweet potato fries.  Now that they are going to have to enter the rigorous deregulation process and may not be approved for 10 years, I’m going to stockpile.

Of course, my apologies to the sweet potato industry and I’m sorry that you are the new victim of stupid.   These are the rules that have been established by non-scientific minds, and it reinforces that we need to change the rules to something that makes sense.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Precaution Potatoes! – Out of the EU and Organic Production

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