Inspectors probe how strain of GM wheat ended up in non-GM crop

Inspectors in the US Department of Agriculture are trying to determine how a strain of GM wheat ended up in a non-GM crop in Oregon almost a decade after Monsanto abandoned plans to sell the herbicide-resistant wheat variety.

The inspectors are trying to determine how the strain turned up years later and how widely it may have spread. Development tests were allowed in 16 states. Scientists warn that such incidents are likely to persist, given weak federal rules in the US and the strength of natural selection.

As it established test plots for its genetically modified wheat at the time, Monsanto imposed tight rules, such as forcing researchers to burn or ship back leftover seeds. It wasn’t enough, however.

“Controlling seed movement is really a big challenge,” said Cynthia Sagers, a professor at the University of Arkansas who researches plant evolutionary ecology. “If anyone were looking, they would find this in many other areas as well.”

For the world’s largest seedmaker, targeted by March Against Monsanto global protests this week over genetically modified foods, the biggest risks are likely to be from farmers confronting export restrictions and from super-weeds made herbicide-resistant by the genetic manipulations meant to help crops survive, researchers say. The USDA, Monsanto and scientists say that human health isn’t a high risk in this case.

“The real problem will be how agriculture deals with these resistant weeds that we’ve created, signed, sealed and delivered,” Sagers said in an interview. “This is going to be more of what we hear about until USDA takes a harder look at genetically modified crops, and GM escape.”

An Oregon farmer tried to kill wheat using Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and found that several plants survived, the USDA said.

St Louis-based Monsanto had withdrawn an application for approval of the strain nine years ago amid concern that buyers would avoid crops from the US, the world’s biggest wheat exporter.

The farmer’s discovery prompted Japan to suspend imports of western-white wheat and feed wheat. Prices of the grain fell on the Chicago Board of Trade after the suspension.

— Bloomberg