Posted on 05/30/2013 8:00:45 PM PDT by Ron C.
Japan, the largest market for U.S. wheat exports, suspended imports from the United States and canceled a major purchase of white wheat on Thursday after the recent discovery of unapproved genetically modified wheat in an 80-acre field in Oregon.
How the altered crop made its way to the Oregon field remains a mystery. The strain was developed by Monsanto to make wheat resistant to the company’s own industry-leading weed killer. Monsanto tested the type of altered seed in more than a dozen states, including Oregon, between 1994 and 2005, but it was never approved for commercial use.
Yet the Agriculture Department reported that recent tests identified the strain after an Oregon farmer trying to clear a field sprayed Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, and found that the wheat could not be killed.
The report rattled U.S. wheat markets. In addition to Japan’s action, the European Union, which imports more than 1 million tons of U.S. wheat a year, said that it was following developments “to ensure E.U. zero-tolerance policy is implemented.” It asked Monsanto to help detection efforts in Europe.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Exactly so.
And quantim, I understand the infringement part and think Monsanto are the ones who should be paying through the nose when their stuff harms the fruits of another's labor.
Because the wheat is doused regularly with roundup. And consequently the wheat you eat is loaded with roundup. And there are conflicting studies on the longterm safety of roundup. And whether or not it interacts with human metabolic pathways or disrupts those present in the human microbiome.
Animal studies using GMO crops are only conducted for 90 days. Not long enough to see lifetime/lifespan consequences or whether or not there are any intergenerational epigenetic consequences.
There’s the patented conundrum. If Monsanto let it loose by their own fault then they have to pay for the damage if they insist this queers someone else’s wheat field.
Now if we had a GPL of genetic engineered wheat, then sure anyone could use it. Unless it was banned.
Corporations that squeeze out their competitors by utilizing the power of the state and laws passed for their protection and preservation are evil. They have bastardized the capitalist system.
Too many major corporations are built on bribes and favors. This "crony capitalism" is not Capitalism at all. It is a soft fascism. And it is all too prevalent in our country today.
April 1, 2013) The Monsanto Protection Act, which President Obama signed into law this week, will strip judges of their constitutional mandate to protect consumer rights and the environment, while opening up the floodgates for the planting of new untested genetically engineered crops, endangering farmers, consumers and the environment. The result is that GMO crops will be able to evade any serious scientific or regulatory review.
Wait till someone gets that wheat in their lawn or on a field that was meant for something else.
If used improperly, Round up will kill plenty of things. Lawn care specialists know not to use it in high winds as it will affect the surrounding area. That is the nature of round up or any weed killer.
Does this make Monsanto evil? I’m not defending Monsanto, I’m just trying to understand the hysteria.
Round up proof wheat will be difficult to deal with as a weed....
Wheat is wind pollinated, not by insects.
I am in the seed business, don’t like/trust Monsanto or Syngenta because of the way they do business.
GMO wheat makes no sense except to make it possible to “patent” life so they own all the species and you cannot save seed for replanting.
PVPA seed allows saving seed for replanting. And PVPA protection expires after 20 years.
Patented Lifeforms are forever. A stupid law that recognizes this.
“I want them to sue the crap out of Monsanto.
RoundUp is cheapest and safest grass weed killer out there and these clowns are playing with fire.”
What is your point? Monsanto makes Roundup. Who would sue Monsanto and why?
Also this wheat variety development was stopped in 2005. Who knows what happened. The economic losses are really with lost sales. But I doubt Monsanto had anything to do with this. My bet is a bag of this seed mistakenly was planted by someone or got blended in to other seed..
I planted a standard wheat hybrid last year to attract turkeys. It accomplished that task. I saw it pop up again this year, so I didn’t bother to re-sow the area.
It’s as tall, it’s as green, and it’s not got a seeded head but some kind of fluffy whatever that is obviously going to produce nothing.
I’m going after heirloom wheat now and sowing it as quickly as I can. I’m curious if it will produce a true reproduction of itself. http://sustainableseedco.com/heirloom-grain-seed/wheat-seed/organic-hard-red-spring-wheat.html
Nope & Nope
They have the gene to make it sterile from what I have read, but it has never been used for fear of the consequences.
Note- I am no defender of Monsanto, but don’t buy into the looney stuff that some of the alarmist falsely preach.
There is a big push going on to build a coal terminal in Whatcom County WA. The developers of the terminal, SSA/Goldman Sachs held a public relations conference with grain growers across the Northwest, saying that grain was to be the other cargo to be shipped from the Gateway Pacific Terminal. The Chinese trade rep told the attendees that China would buy all the grain and soy beans that the farmers could grow. The SSA/Goldman Sachs people told the farmers that they could get the growing restrictions removed from the land if the farmers agreed to ship their grain to China via the Gateway Pacific Terminal.
Last week, we learned that someone tried to insert language in a bill that would do just that for Monsanto, lift all government restrictions on growing MONSANTO grain. So now, we not only have to worry about the coal, we have to worry about them shipping GMO grain. At least the rest of the world is wising up to threat of the GMO grains.
I wouldn’t worry that much about genetically modified wheat making us sick.
The non-genetically-modified strains in common use are already toxic, due to the introduction of genetic material from non-food grasses through perfectly ordinary cross-breeding and hybridization.
I didn’t discuss insect repellents. I discussed roundup, the herbicide. GMO crops are engineered so they can be sprayed with roundup and not die. It’s an easy (but as it turns out not so cheap) way to keep weeds down in your field.
Unfortunately the crop you’re growing ends up saturated with glyphosphate. aka Roundup.
Not all governments are bought and paid for by Monsanto. Our government recently gave the corporation legal immunity in case their product is found to be harmful to humans. That should tell you something!
RoundUp kills all vegetation, not just weeds, and it does it in a matter of days. I killed every plant on a quarter-acre of weed-overrun land using the stuff, and every one of them died and dried up down to the roots in less than a week. It's not selective in the slightest.
Just hearing there's a plant that it won't kill is amazing enough, but hearing that the same company that created RoundUp also created the one plant that it can't kill? That sounds near-diabolic.
I’m not sure I’d classify something so nearly sterile as to necessitate ‘embryo rescue’ as a normal part of selective breeding. Our current wheat would have never been able to have been bred 100 years ago.
crony capitalism in America is not so much about “cronies” as it is about social corporatism, and you are correct. It is soft fascism.
A state in bed with a corporation is a gross violation of a free market. Those who roundly defend free markets should not defend social corporatism. It looks sort of like a duck, but it doesn’t walk and quack like one.
But wheat is not a weed.
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