The French biotechnology supreme committee said on the 28th that the agency has determined through research that there is no "obvious danger" in the planting of genetically modified potato Amflora.
In a report published on the same day, the Supreme Council for Biotechnology stated that the scientific committee under the agency had thought through toxicity experiments that there was no major danger in planting this kind of potatoes, and consumption would not cause any damage to health. The Scientific Committee also stated that this genetically modified potato contains a gene that is resistant to antibiotics, but its existence does not pose a "special threat" to the natural environment or human health.
The economic, ethical, and social committees of another subordinate body of the Supreme Council are relatively conservative. Some experts in the agency believe that “highest alert†should be adopted for genetically modified potatoes; other experts believe that since scientific research has determined that the above-mentioned genetically modified potatoes are harmless, they should open the door to the market.
The French Ministry of Ecology issued a communique on the same day that the government will make a final decision on whether to permit the cultivation of this genetically modified potato, in accordance with the analysis of the Supreme Council.
In early March of this year, the European Commission approved the EU countries to plant this genetically modified potato.
However, France has always opposed new GM products entering the EU market. Some French believe that although GM technology can increase crop yields or enhance crop resistance to pests and diseases, it may have adverse effects on the environment and human health. The cultivation and research of GM crops in France was severely constrained, and many researchers were quite dissatisfied with it.