The search for Monsanto’s rogue GM wheat

The following is an edited excerpt.

On May 29 the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that a strain of genetically modified wheat had been discovered in an Oregon field. The USDA later confirmed that it was Monsanto’s MON 71800 [Roundup Ready wheat], a strain which had been discontinued.

No one could say where the 71800 came from, but it appeared to have migrated from one of Monsanto’s test plots. But how? And were there other farm fields pocked by GMO wheat?

At stake is the $8 billion wheat export business, and in particular U.S. wheat trade with Asia—and the welfare of more than 160,000 American farms.

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