A genetically modified strain of wheat that was never approved by the United States Department of Agriculture as been discovered growing in Oregon, triggering a federal probe that is now spanning several states.
Investigators with the USDA want to know why the GMO crop, made
by biotech company Monsanto but never approved for use, sprouted
up in a field in the Pacific Northwest.
America’s wheat trade could be jeopardized if concerns grow among
foreign consumers already weary of genetically engineered and
modified organisms. Several countries across the European Union
have banned the
cultivation of GMO crops, and last weekend anti-Monsanto demonstrations were attended by millions of
protesters on six continents.
The USDA has yet to approve any GMO strain of wheat to be grown
in the US, but Monsanto field tested a genetically engineered
variety from 1998 through 2005 before withdrawing their
application from the agency’s regulatory approval process.
The wheat, resistant to Monsanto’s patented pesticide Roundup, is
one of many GMO crops in the company’s line of “Roundup
Ready” products. After a farmer in Oregon noticed that wheat
plants on his property were still growing despite dousing his
field with the pesticide, he alerted Michael Firko, the deputy
administrator of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.
“We are taking this very seriously,” Firko said. “We
have a very active investigation going on in several states in
the western US.”
According to a 2003 article in the Billings, Montana Gazette,
Monsanto pledged that its GMO wheat crop resistant to strong
pesticides would not be introduced commercially until proven
complete safe and approved in the US, Canada and Japan.
“We have to prove the safety of the gene, the food, the animal
feed and the environment. That it is as safe as unmodified
varieties and (nutritionally) is substantially equivalent to
commercial varieties,” Monsanto’s then director of industry
affairs, Michael Doane, told the Gazette at the time.
So far, the USDA has determined that the wheat crop in question
was the same variety tested by Monsanto up until eight years ago.
The US Food and Drug Administration found no safety concerns with
the crop after completing a test in 2004, but Monsanto suspended
plans to follow through with the product the following year
without receiving the USDA’s stamp of approval.
Despite growing criticism from agriculturalists,
environmentalists and consumers over potential health risks,
Monsanto continues to attest that GMOs could change the world’s
food landscape for the better.
“There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us,”
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant told a reporter for Bloomberg earlier
this month.
USDA Acting Deputy Secretary Michael Scuse confirmed to
Agri-Pulse that state agriculture directors in Oregon, Washington
and Idaho are now coordinating a multi-state investigation, and
foreign trade representatives in Canada, Mexico and Asia have
been contacted.
“Hopefully our trading partners will be very
understanding,” Scuse said, emphasizing “this is not a
food or feed issue.”
This article originally appeared on: RT