News that several varieties of genetically engineered (GE) petunias had been imported into the U.S. without proper authorization from the government has created headaches, hassles and, potentially, financial hits for some floral industry members.
On May 2, 2017, the German breeding company Selecta Klemm informed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) that one of its petunia varieties, an orange petunia, was “potentially genetically engineered and had been imported and moved interstate without required authorization by APHIS,” according to an update from USDA. “This led to testing by USDA of numerous petunia varieties, which confirmed this particular variety and several others are indeed GE.”
APHIS regulates the introduction of certain GE organisms. The petunias, engineered to produce various hues of orange, red and purple flowers, were from Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, South America, as well as Australia, Israel and Mexico, and distributed interstate, without the necessary permits.
APHIS is now asking retailers, growers and breeders to voluntarily withdraw GE petunias from distribution. (See the list of nine varieties.) Because the petunias have not been shown to pose a risk to human health or the environment, consumers don’t need to take action, according to the agency.
Mark Yelanich, Ph.D., of Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, North Carolina, said that for now his company is “working closely with our suppliers to work through this issue.”
“It is not really affecting our business orange petunias are not one of our major petunia colors,” said Yelanich, a member of the Society of American Florists’ Growers Council. “We did have to dump some liners and are working on replacing them with other crops, for example orange calibrachoa. There should be no effect on our customers.”
In Loudon, New Hampshire, another Growers Council member Doug Cole of D.S. Cole Growers Inc. shared a similar perspective.
“Although we carry some orange shades of petunias, as of now, none of the affected varieties are items we carry,” he explained. “We are, however, concerned about where this trail may lead us: Are there other varieties that will be found that contain the gene in question?”
That’s a question Growers Council Chairman Marvin Miller, AAF, Ph.D., of Ball Horticultural Company in West Chicago, Illinois, also is pondering.
“Where there is potential for this to get much larger is if a breeding company used the GE petunia to breed with,” said Miller, who estimates that orange petunias constitute only about “a small fraction of 1 percent” of all petunias in the marketplace. “Since the existence of a GE petunia on the market was a surprise to everyone, imagine the bigger surprise if you find that your breeders liked the orange petunia so much that it was crossed with reds, purples and perhaps other varieties. We know at least one breeding company that has admitted their orange, their red and their purple have the GE gene in them, so they have withdrawn all of these from the market.”
One thing that is clear, Miller said, and that is that growers and breeders are living with some uncertainty with the issue.
“USDA could grant all of these companies permits to continue to market, ship and sell their petunias,” he said. “This could get costly, but it is possible procedures could be implemented by next spring to allow these petunias back on the market. But the opposite is also possible.”
Look for more coverage of this story in future issues of Floral Management magazine and EBrief.
