FOCUS ON ASIA: http://www.gmwatch.org/asia/.asp

Reports keep appearing touting the miraculous nature of an India GM protein-enriched potato - the "protato", said to be able to counter malnutrition. The latest and perhaps most extravagant example (below) is taken from CS Prakash's AgBioView list.

This article includes comments on the protato like "Zero child mortality in underprivileged children would be the goal", while the author tells us, "As far as I can see, there is no counter-argument at all The Protato can and should be introduced".

What is so extraordinary about all this is that the claims forthe protato were exposed as fraudulent in the Indian press as far back as March 2003! (GM Potato Cannot Solve Malnutrition Problems : Experts)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=151

Indeed, the claims for the protato have been so outrageous that they have caused annoyance even amongst pro-GM scientists in India. Prof. C Kameswara Rao, a fervent biotech supporter, has calls the GM protato a "dismal product". Rao has written, "I noticed that the potato used to make wafer chips in England has 6.0 to 6.5 per cent of protein, while that of the GE potato is only about 2.5 per cent. I do not understand how this dismal product could generate so much euphoria".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1709

According to the article below, "The protein-rich GM potatoes are in the final stages of testing, before being submitted for approval". However, Prof Rao says that, far from being close to approval, the protato is 'unlikely to see the light of the day in this decade'! (Announcement of Release of GE Potato in India is Premature)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1709

CS Prakash, who edits the AgBioView list, can hardly be unaware of the unreality of the claims made for the protato as Rao and others sent their comments to AgBioView in response to the hype about the protato previoulsy circulated on the list.
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GM 'Protato' to cure India's poor
By Matt B
20th September 2004
http://ruberyvillage.co.uk/mattsez/render.asp?include=20sept04.asp
[via AgBioView]

Protato to cure India's poor
Genetically modified potatoes are to play a key part in a 15-year plan to combat malnutrition among India's poorest children. Anti-poverty campaigners have greeted the "Protato" with caution and varying degrees of support, but what actually is a Protato?

The move aims to provide children with clean water, better food and vaccines. "Zero child mortality in underprivileged children would be the goal," says Govindarajan Padmanaban, a biochemist at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

Formulated in collaboration with charities, scientists, government institutes and industry, the plan is currently being considered by the Indian government.

The protein-rich GM potatoes are in the final stages of testing, before being submitted for approval. Padmanaban, who outlined the plan at a conference at the Royal Society in London in December, hopes Western-based environmental groups and charities will not reject the project in the same way as they did AstraZeneca's "golden rice", a strain modified to make more vitamin A.
"The requirements of developing countries are very different from those of rich countries," he says. "I think it would be morally indefensible to oppose it." This is a very strong point, as it's easy enough to sit in a warm house eating a meal, complaining about GM foods, while others in less-fortunate countries starve.

Asis Datta's team at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi added a gene called "AmA1" to potatoes, resulting in a third more protein than usual, including substantial amounts of the essential amino acids lysine and methionine.
AmA1 is a gene from the amaranth plant, a crop long grown by native South Americans as a source of income, and now available in some Western health food stores.

"The potato doesn't contain a pesticide gene," says Padmanaban. "It's a gene that improves nutrition, and it's from another plant that is already eaten. Moreover, it's not a known allergen." Surely complaining that we're "playing God" is simply a void counter-argument, as there is nothing harmful about this product, unlike Bt cotton, which was recently licensed in India, much to the disgust of activists due to it carrying a bacterial pesticide gene.

The idea is that the potatoes will form part of a midday meal to combat deficiencies in children's diets. A lack of lysine, for example, can affect brain development.

The potato should only be adopted if it passes all safety and environmental requirements, and if the extra protein is digestible, says Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign, a Delhi-based sustainable development group opposed to the patenting of plants. Should it surpass these requirements, then there will be no logical nor moral argument against the growth of the Protato.

"If you're going to use GM at all, use it for this," she says. "India's problem is that we're vegetarian, so pulses and legumes are the main protein source, but they're in short supply and expensive. The potato is good because it's cheap." Yet another argument for growing it!

Siddharth Deva, policy adviser for south Asia for the British-based charity Oxfam, agrees that the potato could serve a useful purpose. But he calls for the government's judgements on GM crops to be independently assessed by panels of experts, including environmentalists. "We want to ensure that introductions of GM crops don't have harmful implications," he says. This effort to ensure that the idea is reviewed by a wide range of authorities provides further reassurance that all possibilities of risk are covered and cleared.

The Protato is not the first protein-enriched crop as we all know: strains of GM maize rich in lysine have been created for a while now, which have many uses and benefits. However, as many protesters point out, it is not necessary to resort to genetic engineering, of course: bread and wheat flour can also be enriched in protein simply by adding agents such as peanut flour, a harmless addition. However this is costlier and none of the various schemes to provide this bread to malnourished children since the 1960s has survived, despite the benefits.

As far as I can see, there is no counter-argument at all The Protato can and should be introduced, for a better way of life for those less privileged than us, in our cosy Western society.