Oregon's Willamette Valley is the world's largest exporter of grass. No, not the Columbian kind, I'm talking about the stuff in your lawn.
Unfortunately for Oregon farmers, "creeping bentgrass", a Roundup-resistant, genetically modified strain of grass developed by Monsanto, and tested in Central Oregon has been found miles away from the containment area where it was being developed. It has taken root in the wild where it is poised to devastate Oregon's $370-million grass-seed industry
Go below the flip for this latest cautionary tale on Genetically modified organisms.
Monsanto and Scotts Miracle grow developed creeping bentgrass for use on golf courses. The big idea was to create a form of grass that would allow lawn keepers to spray roundup and other glyphosphate-based weed killers on their lawn, kill the weeds, and leave the grass unharmed (lost on Monsanto, apparently, are the
potential health risks posed by glyphosphate exposure).
According to Monsanto, the seeds escaped containment when wind dispersed the seed after grass in their lab fields had been cut.
Undaunted by the appearance of their unauthorized grass in the wild, Monsanto is pressing forward with USDA approval, arguing that containment will not be a problem on golf courses, since "grass in golf courses is cut too short to go to seed".
This is not the first time that GMO products have escaped containment. Transgenic Canola was released in Canada in 2005. But unlike Canola, which is an annual seed with few cousins with which to cross-pollenate, creeping bentgrass grass is a perennial, and can cross-pollenate with potentially noxious weeds and other grass varieties dramatically increasing weed control problems.
Moreover, it can cross-pollenate with existing grass crops that make up the bulk of commercial grass sales, such as ryegrass, threatening the economic livelihood of farmers.
GMO crops were first introduced into commercial production in the United States in 1996. Today, GMO crops are planted on more than 160 million acres of farmland worldwide -- with 106 million acres planted in the U.S. alone.
The amount of GMO crops planted in the United States has increased 40-fold in less than 8 years.