Monsanto Discontinues Sales of Bt Potatoes

Ontario Farmer, March 6, 2001

Monsanto has decided to get out of the genetically modified business for potatoes. Starting with the 2001 season, the company will no longer market its NatureMark potatoes, varieties that feature a Bt gene to help ward off Colorado potato beetles. Adele Pelland, the company's manager of public affairs, says Monsanto will buy back any pre-commercial lead seed that growers have already purchased. Common seed, which is currently held by a few growers, can still be planted this year since the varieties are still registered, she says.

The announcement came "as kind of a surprise", says OMAFRA potato specialist Eugenia Banks. She says seed growers received letters announcing the decision a couple of weeks ago. Although the genetically modified varieties Shepordy and Atlantic gave growers new resistance against insects and disease, Banks says sales of the varieties "were not very good." She says the varieties were agronomically good but there was concern about consumer reaction, which was heightened when one major processor, McCain, decided it would no longer buy GMO spuds. Pelland played down the anti-GMO controversy and would only say that Monsanto has been forced to concentrate its biotech resources in strategic areas. From now on the company will be focusing on corn, oilseeds, wheat and cotton. "We've had to scale back our activities with other crops," she says. Shepordy had two resistance genes, one to combat Colorado potato beetles, the other against mosaic virus, Banks says. Atlantic only carried the Bt gene against the beetles.

VegEdge, Editor's Note: For more informaiton regarding Bt potatoes and management of the Colorado Potato Beetle in the Midwest USA, please see the recent CPB Fact Sheet by Drs. Ragsdale and Radcliffe, University of Minnesota, at: http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/cpb.htm

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Co-Editors: Bill Hutchison, Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, hutch002@tc.umn.edu
Jeanne Ciborowski, IPM Program, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, jeanne.ciborowski@state.mn.us
Cindy Tong, Department of Horticulture, University of Minnesota, c-tong@tc.umn.edu
Production Editor: Suzanne Wold, Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, woldx018@tc.umn.edu

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Last Revised March 29, 2001.
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