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"New Leaf" potatoes at Agway
Russet Burbank seed potatoes that make their own Bt pesticide are now on sale in
the local Agway feed store under the brand name "New Leaf." Other than that
name and their 50 percent higher price, there is no indication on the package
anywhere that they are genetically engineered.
Is this some bizarre part of the plan to manage the build-up of resistant
populations of CPB? ... or part of a plan to make Bt obsolete as soon as
possible?
Organic farmers have expressed great concern that the widespread planting of
these potatoes may hasten the evolution of resistance to this now-valuable,
organic insecticide Bt, Bacillus thruingiensis. . Even Monsanto, the potato's
creator, acknowledges that future resistance will be a problem and that their
new genetically-engineered potato will have a short life in the marketplace.
The russet-Burbank potato variety accounts for nearly half of all the potatoes
grown in North America and virtually all of the potatoes used in frozen foods
and served in fast food restaurants.
Bill Duesing
Solar Farm Education
Stevenson, CT