The common potato has many adversaries not only from the potato blight and the flea beetle but also from human ignorance about its nutritional value.
During National Potato day on October 14th Food and Farming Minister Jim Paice said that there were plenty of myths to dispel about the benefits of eating potatoes.
“Potato Day is a great opportunity to clear up the myth that potatoes are unhealthy. Potatoes are good value, versatile and healthy,” he was quoted saying on the Defra site.
Defra said: “In fact, the average British person gets 15 per cent of their annual intake of vitamin C from potatoes.
“Nearly 3,000 potato farmers grow over six million tonnes of potatoes in Britain each year, the majority of which are eaten here in Britain. When asked, more than 80 per cent of consumers want to support home-grown food, but there is some confusion about what British farmers produce.”
Saying their results came from 2000 answers online, Defra claimed: “Half of consumers think rice is being grown in Britain, and three quarters of consumers think that British farmers grow wheat for pasta – in fact, neither is true.
They continued: “Fresh potatoes don’t need to be manufactured like pasta or bread so they have less impact on the planet.”
Another threat to the potato was from the potato blight. The EU gave approval for a genetically modified (GM) potato to be grown in the EU in Spring 2010. The GM potato has a gene that can resist the disease.
Shortly after the ruling the Environment secretary Caroline Spelman agreed that GM potato trials would go ahead in the UK.
“Lord Henley has approved a trial of a potato blight-resistant variety. That’s the kind of modification that can reduce the amount of agro-chemicals which need to be applied,” said Spelman in the Guardian.
The trial is being carried out on a plot in Norfolk by scientists from the Sainsbury Laboratory, which specialises in plant research. It is part of a programme that has cost taxpayers £ 1.7 million since 2001, reported the Daily Mail.
Not surprisingly Lord Sainsbury has now called for a new debate twelve years after the first about GM crops.
The BBC said that Sainsbury claims more scientific evidence now exists and to disregard GM would simply be ‘foolish.’
Another potato antagonist is the flea beetle of the Mediterranean. The Food and Environment Research Agency FERA have asked for information about the potato flea beetle that is currently in Spain and Portugal.
There is an ongoing formal EU plant risk assessment being conducted by the European Plant Protection Organisation. Until it reports back on the beetle no control measures can exist across Europe.
The FERA consultation is to collect opinions about possible measures to reduce the risks of the flea beetle entering the UK.
They ‘are seeking views from all sectors of the industry on whether you would support national legislative measures against Epitrix, the flea beetle, preventing the importing of unwashed potatoes from countries where the beetle is known.’
Views must be sent in before November 16th to FERA or the Scottish government site.
