WHO SHOT MONSANTO?

They just shot themselves.  It took seven years for the ammunition to get here, but the final bullet came last week. The Associated Press reported today that the US Agriculture Depart announced last Wednesday that a lawsuit recently brought by an Oregon wheat farmer claiming that Monsanto’s genetically engineered experimental wheat (perfecting Roundup Ready Wheat) was found growing in his 80 acre field in Oregon is now being joined by other wheat farmers. There has been no GMO wheat approved for human consumption is the US or Canada.

Although the wheat is the same strand that Monsanto was experimenting with, it was never approved.  In fact, Monsanto claims they shut down the experiment seven years ago.  And while Monsanto does not deny that the wheat found in the farmer’s field is the same strand they were experimenting with (from 1998-2005) they don’t know how the GMO wheat got into the farmer’s field.  They claim their experiments weren’t anywhere close to the farmer’s fields which make this news even scarier.  But as there was, and is, no other agency experimenting with this kind of GMO wheat production according to reports, it can only be Monsanto’s wheat.  But I think these law suits from individual farmers are the least of Monsanto’s worries. 

Monsanto (and the wheat farmers) biggest worries have to be what these announcements (which are actually a week old, CBC is seriously amiss in this story) will do to foreign trade.  The US exports half of its wheat crop. The rest of the world is uneasy about GMO foods and some Asian and European nations take a zero tolerance toward them.  Japan and South Korea are already canceling orders for American wheat and the European Union has said it will test all US wheat and block any shipments found to contain genetically modified organisms.

  Russia earlier has suspended the import and use of Roundup Ready corn made by Monsanto after the Caen Study in France found that rats fed with Roundup Ready Corn suffered more tumors and severe diseases than rats fed with regular corn.  Some other countries are not far behind.  With the US and Canada already finding growing resistance to all GMO products this final GMO wheat contamination will cause severe economic penalties for wheat growers and the US as a whole. 

And what will the Harper government do?  Continue to ignore the announcements as the CBC and other Canadian media is doing?  Hope it will go away?  But that border doesn’t mean anything to seeds borne on the winds.  Is it too much to hope that the Canadian public might hear some in depth discussions about this dire threat and perhaps some assurance from the Canadian government?