By now all the world will have heard about the dreadful flooding that afflicted Britain, particularly Sheffield and Hull in the north in June, and the Avon and Severn valleys in the west during July.

What they may not have heard is the effect all this moisture has had on agriculture. While many crops have been damaged directly by being flooded, or flattened from heavy rain, potato blight is also spreading, giving the worst outbreak in five years. The National Farmers Union and the British Potato Council have reported hotspots in East Anglia, the Midlands and the South West as well as the eastern part of Scotland (for maps see http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/fight_against_blight/index.html?menu_pos=knowledge_transfer). Farmers have been unable to spray their crops to protect them from the fungal disease which causes plants to rot. The Times predicted that the cost of chips is about to rise.

What better time, then, for a bit of vandalism? In Cambridgeshire, BASF, a German seed producer, is running a field trial of GM-blight-resistant potatoes. At this very time of flood and difficulty, self-styled “saviours of the planet” found nothing better to do than vandalise the trial site. Having protested one weekend, they returned in the dead of night some days later: the brave fellows cut through the fence and felled the offending plants without a thought for their own safety. It is not recorded if the potatoes fought back.

Some months earlier their colleagues in Ireland had successfully prevented the same company from running tests of its potatoes in that country. You might have thought that memories in Ireland of the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s, the direct consequence of blight, might have had some ameliorating effect because of its importance in the national memory.

But not, it seems, when you bent on saving the planet.

Sources:

1. Farmers warn over potato blight. BBC News (5.7.07) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6271584.stm)

2. Valerie Elliott (10.7.07). Potato blight and flooding will raise the price of chips. The Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article2051113.ece)

3. Activists ruin GM potatoes. Cambridge Evening News (10.7.07) (http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2007/07/09/187aafb9-66da-418f-8e25-e72fda3d909f.lpf)

4. Aideen Sheehan (24.5.06). Firm prevents GM potato-growing field trial. Irish Independent (http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1619131&issue_id=14089)

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