I am against GM food - that said -

[littlewolf]

I think this is a good thing. I wonder who it was licensed to /s
the only thing I am wondering about is what else they did to it.
but if the only thing they changed was its ability to resist fungus it is a good thing.

http://www.newser.com/story/182407/scientists-build-a-better-potato.html

(Newser) – It's about 175 years late for those who perished in the Irish Potato Famine, but British researchers think they've created a potato resistant to blight, reports the Irish Times. They borrowed a gene from a South American spud and added it to the common Desiree potato. After three years of crop tests, they've declared success in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Not one of their potatoes fell victim to fungus, as opposed to regular potatoes planted nearby, reports the Scotsman.

snip

Researchers already have licensed the product to a US company but expect slower going with EU regulators over the genetically modified crop. "This kind of product will likely be on the US market within a couple of years, and if we are lucky within eight to 10 years in Europe," the not-so-happy lead scientist from Sainsbury Laboratory tells the BBC. Proponents say the potato will reduce the need for chemicals to protect crops, but skeptics says the "GM" label will be enough to put off consumers. And how do they taste? Researchers weren't allowed to eat any, so that's not known. (Last year, scientists zeroed in on the specific pathogen responsible for the famine.)

[silverweb]

1. There's GM and there's GM.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]This is what a lot of people don't understand. Hybridization of species within a genus is a form of GM, but it is a kind that occurs in nature.

In this case, they're crossing a potato with a potato to make a better potato. I don't see a problem here. A good hybrid species is desirable.

When biotech companies are inserting genes from unrelated species or modifying an organism's genetic makeup to resist herbicides so they can sell more chemicals, then I have a problem with them because we don't know all the ramifications.

When they're making "terminator seeds" just so they can force farmers to buy seed from them year after year, I have a very big problem with them for attempting to monopolize everyone's food supply.

On Edit: And when they have the audacity to tell us that we have no right to know what they've done to the foods we're eating, I get really upset.

[littlewolf]

2. with you there, inserting genes from something else scares the crap out of me.

and as a kid growing up on a farm I have a real problem
on terminator seeds. it also pisses me off when
told we have no right to know what is in my food.

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. As long as the splice is stable

The problem, as I understand it, is when genes that are spliced from another species do not stay put and are not necessarily expressed in the same position as when they were created. Then, who knows what may be expressed genetically.

If I'm wrong, let me know. I'm not a scientist, I'm a farmer.