Austria to ban modified potatoes: ministry
(VIENNA) - Austria said Tuesday it planned to ban the cultivation of genetically-modified potatoes after it was approved by the European Commission in Brussels.
"Minister Alois Stoeger is preparing a document banning the cultivation of genetically-modified potatoes," a health ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
The minister was going to "immediately issue a national cultivation ban," according to the ministry.
Brussels approved on Tuesday the cultivation of genetically-modified potatoes -- the first approval of GM foods for 12 years -- as environmentalists and some European ministers slammed the so-called "frankenfoods" as a threat to human health.
Austria already introduced a safeguard clause in 1999 banning the import of two types of genetically-modified maize, also approved by the European Commission: Monsanto's MON810 maize and Bayer's T25.
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