Monsanto move to drop GM wheat a response to market forces, says Byrne

THE decision by Monsanto to shelve the world’s first genetically modified wheat seems to be a response to market forces, EU Commissioner for health and consumer protection David Byrne said in Killarney yesterday.

The US agri-chemical company earlier announced that it would not try to market Roundup Ready, a GM strain of wheat it has developed over seven years at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Environmentalists opposed to GM products hailed the decision as a major victory for consumers and farmers worldwide and claimed it was indicative of growing biotech crop opposition overall. They claimed it was a key defeat for the firm in the fight to stop GM crops.