Hot potatoes! BASF drops GM spud plans in EU
The ever changing story of Europe's relationship with biotechnology took another twist recently when the giant German chemical firm BASF announced it was halting the development of all its GM potato varieties in Europe.
The company was approved to grow a commercial GM potato called Amflora in 2010. This variety had been modified to produce more of a type of starch that is useful for papermaking and other industrial processes.
But from the start, Amflora potatoes struggled to gain market share and just a year after getting the green light, they were only being grown on a two-hectare site in Germany.
A year ago, BASF said it was moving its biotech headquarters to North Carolina and halting the commercialisation of GM products for the European market.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21294487
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> the giant German chemical firm BASF announced it was halting the development
> of all its GM potato varieties in Europe.
