Dwyer quoted in BDN article on second-generation potatoes
Jim Dwyer, a crops specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for an article about second-generation potatoes. A new genetically engineered potato has been ruled safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and has been deregulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to the article. Made by the Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Company under the brand name Innate, the second-generation potato is under review and must still be approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency after a decade of scientific development, safety assessments and extensive field tests, the article states. Innate potatoes only contain genes from wild and cultivated potatoes and are grown in the same way as conventional potatoes, according to the company. Dwyer said recently he and officials from the Maine Potato Board attended a presentation by Simplot. “We got a presentation a few weeks ago about the technology that they are bringing to the table,” Dwyer said. “They have several varieties, such as the Russet Burbank Generation 2, that they talked to us about, and there were good traits such as less bruising and more resistance to late blight.”