EU environment chief faces GMO hot potato

By Jeremy Smith

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's environment chief faces a showdown this month with his colleagues in the EU's executive Commission over biotech foods and crops, officials say.

The root cause is a potato.

Since July, the biotech industry has been waiting for the Commission to authorize an application by German chemicals group BASF for a genetically modified (GMO) potato for use in industry rather than as food.

The application for a potato, engineered to yield high amounts of starch has triggered controversy far exceeding the usual European consumer wariness over GMO foods.

If, or rather when, it is approved by the Commission, the EU's executive arm, it will be the first GMO product to be passed since 1998 that is designed to be grown in Europe's fields.

It is not intended for human consumption but rather for use in industries such as paper-making.

BASF, which would like to start commercial cultivation next year, has made a separate EU application for the same potato under a different legal process to use its pulp, known commercially as Amflora, as animal feed.

EU farm ministers discussed the BASF application in mid-July but failed to reach agreement. As a result, the decision over the potato has landed on the Commission's plate.