Burger King & McDonald's Worried About Serving GE Potatoes

Farmers Weekly 3 December 1999 (UK)

McCain blows cool on GM potatoes

GENETICALLY modified pota-
toes are getting a firm thumbs
down from North America.

McCain Foods (Canada) announced this
week that it would not use geneti-
cally modified crops in any of its
products. The move is a response
to consumer demand rather than
any problems with the technology,
a spokesperson stressed.

US-based Burger King told
Farmers Weekly that although it
has not banned GM foods, no GM
ingredients are used in its prod-
ucts, including French fries.

Achieving that would be diffi-
cult when crops have not been seg-
regated so far, reports Canadian
journalist Stephen Leahy.

McDonalds may follow suit,
suggests Fraser's Potato
Newsletter in Canada. Another of
North America's biggest proces-
sors, Lamb Weston, is believed to
be using up all its GM supplies
before the year end, it adds.

The anti-GM mood is a big
blow to farmers in Prince Edward
Island and New Brunswick where
potatoes are the main crop and
where the first GM potatoes were
grown, notes Mr Leahy. Producers
had been increasingly turning to
Monsanto's New Leaf GM vari-
eties to protect against Colorado
beetle attack.