USDA OKs Simplot’s 2nd-generation GMO potato

A potato genetically engineered by J.R. Simplot Co. in Boise to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine has cleared its first federal regulatory hurdle.

The Russet Burbank variety that the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved Friday is the second generation of Simplot’s Innate brand of potatoes. It includes the first generation’s reduced bruising and a greater reduction in a chemical produced at high temperatures that some studies have shown can cause cancer.

The second generation potato also includes an additional trait the company says will allow potatoes to be stored at colder temperatures longer to reduce food waste.

The USDA approval is just one step in federal approvals required before the potatoes can be sold to consumers. The next step is approval by the Food and Drug Administration, which ruled the first generation as safe in March. The potatoes must also be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

“For historical reasons and current agriculture reasons, this is an important milestone,” said Haven Baker, vice president of plant sciences at Simplot. “The Irish potato famine did change a lot of Western history. Even today – 160 years later – late blight is a $5 billion problem for the global potato industry.”

Baker said the modifications were made by silencing existing genes or adding genes from other types of potatoes, not from other plants or animals.

“It’s potato genes in the potato,” he said. “There are clear benefits for everybody, and it’s just a potato.”

The late-blight resistance, he said, came from an Argentinian variety of potato that naturally produced a defense to the blight.

One of the company’s oldest business partners – McDonald’s – has already said it does not plan to use the company’s first-generation Innate potato. McDonald’s did not immediately respond to calls for comment about the new potato.

Shut out of that market, Simplot is focusing on grocery stores.

The first generation of the Innate potatoes, approved in March by the Food and Drug Administration as safe for consumers, were marketed as White Russets. Doug Cole, the company’s director of marketing and communications, said about 400 acres’ worth sold out last summer in grocery stores in 10 states in the Midwest and Southeast. The company plans to market about 2,000 acres of potatoes next summer.

“Our focus is on the fresh market for the coming year,” Baker said. “We think the benefits are clear. We’ve got customers, and it’s a place that we’re excited to be. To some degree I think we need to prove that consumers are willing to buy White Russets, and they know what they are and that they see the benefits. Then I think the other parts of the industry will come.”

The company said it expects FDA and EPA approvals within a year. Commercial planting would likely begin in 2017, with the second-generation potatoes available to consumers that fall. Cole said Simplot hasn’t decided how the potatoes will be marketed.

The company is working on a third generation, which Baker said will have a resistance to a type of virus that can make potatoes unmarketable.

He said the company hopes eventually to have potatoes that require less water and can better survive heat and drought. That could be important as climates appear to be growing more volatile.

“I think that from a scientific perspective, these biotechnology tools have a lot of promise,” he said.

AP writer Kimberlee Kruesi contributed.