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Comment and Life

England has just given the thumbs up to gene-edited plants. Hooray!

A UK parliamentary committee has greenlit gene-edited plants. This is great news, as it will boost food production and reduce waste, says Michael Le Page

By Michael Le Page

7 May 2025

T8GENK Fresh new potatoes on wooden background. Solanum tuberosum

Normal potatoes like these turn brown when they are sliced open

Formatoriginal / Alamy

The potatoes I am eating are nice, but they don’t stand out taste-wise. To find out what is special about them, you need to cut open the raw tubers and keep an eye on them. What you will see is, er, absolutely nothing – unlike normal potatoes, these gene-edited ones don’t turn brown when cut. That means less waste, because many people and businesses discard discoloured potatoes that are perfectly good to eat.

The gene-edited versions I tried aren’t on sale yet, but could be…

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