Monsanto trait | Plants have been at a Montana facility that grew genetically modified wheat more than a decade ago
(Reuters) —Monsanto’s experimental genetically modified wheat, which has never been approved for sale, has been found growing in a second U.S. state.
Regulators said Sept. 26 they could not explain how the plants escaped field trials that ended almost a decade ago.
Roughly a year after the discovery of the company’s unapproved wheat in an Oregon field disrupted U.S. wheat export sales, the GM wheat has also been found in Montana, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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APHIS launched an investigation into the Montana incident July 14, said Bernadette Juarez, director of investigative and enforcement services for APHIS.
The wheat was found growing at a Montana State University research facility in Huntley, Mont., where field trials of Monsanto’s wheat were conducted between 2000 and 2003, she said.
Juarez said crop developers are obligated to inform regulators of volunteer plants after field trials conclude.
USDA officials said there are no health and safety concerns from the GM wheat, and they do not believe the wheat has entered commercial trade channels. The area where the wheat was found primarily produces sugar beets and barley rather than wheat, Juarez said.
The lines of wheat found in Montana and Oregon differ significantly, but both contain Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant trait.
There is no commercially GM wheat.
The wheat in question was developed by Monsanto to withstand treatments of Roundup, but the company never commercialized it because international buyers threatened to boycott U.S. wheat if the product was introduced to the marketplace.
Monsanto said in 2004 it would end efforts to commercialize the wheat, and the grain was supposed to have been destroyed or stored securely.
Companies are still trying to develop a GM wheat acceptable to the market. APHIS said it was stepping up oversight of those field trials.
Word of the wheat in Montana comes after last year’s discovery by an Oregon farmer of GM wheat in his field. The discovery prompted South Korea and Japan to temporarily halt purchases of U.S. wheat because of fears of contamination.
APHIS said that despite a “comprehensive” investigation, it has not determined how the GM wheat came to grow in the farmer’s field. No field trials were ever authorized on the Oregon farm.
Juarez said there would not be any penalties or disciplinary action against Monsanto for the Oregon incident. However, several farmers have sued Monsanto, accusing the company of failing to protect the market from contamination by its approved wheat.
The parties are in settlement talks, Monsanto said.
The company has said in the past that it takes the “stewardship and safety of all its products very seriously.”
