Last week's report that an unapproved strain of GM wheat developed by Monsanto was found on an Oregon farm (tested more than 10 years ago but never approved for commercial production) has rattled markets and led to a ban by Japan and Korea on imports of U.S. wheat. This has the potential to spread and threatens all of our exports. The European Union is urging members to test what would amount to 80 percent of its imported U.S. wheat.
Mother Jones reports:The revelation had immediate trade implications. About half the overall US wheat crop gets exported—and Oregon’s wheat farmers export 90 percent of their output. Many countries accept US-grown GM corn and soy for animal feed. But as the USDA noted, no country on Earth has approved the sale of GM wheat. And if Roundup Ready wheat is growing on one farm, our trading partners might legitimately ask, what guarantee is there that it’s not growing on others? Already, Japan has responded by suspending imports of US wheat, Bloomberg reports.
Maximizing exports has always been a main priority of the Obama Administration’s ag policy, and, the USDA is scrambling to investigate the extent to which Roundup Ready wheat has entered the food supply, no doubt hoping to stave off a full-on trade crisis. “We are taking this very seriously,” a USDA official told Bloomberg. “We have a very active investigation going on in several states in the western US.”
Genetically modified foods, which are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, have been a source of controversy in the U.S. and abroad. Supporters say the plants boost crop yields, increasing the global food supply, while critics argue the chemicals can be harmful to the environment and lead to serious health problems. Protesters in cities across the country took to the streets last week to demonstrate against Monsanto, the company most synonymous with GMOs.
Eight national governments in the European Union have already banned Monsanto's MON810 maize and other forms of GMO cultivation in their countries under an environmental protection provision known as the 'Safeguard Clause'.
Particularly fierce protests in Germany prompted the government to introduce the measures in 2009 due to concerns that such cultivation could lead to ecological degradation.
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Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and most recently Poland are among other EU member states enforcing the ban. In April, Italy joined the ranks of EU states looking to ban the cultivation of GM crops on its soil.
Chemical Disasters, Agent Orange, and GMOs are among just some of the dark milestones belonging to the history of the biotech giant Monsanto.
Ronnie Cummins, executive director of Organic Consumers Association “Monsanto has become synonymous with the corporatization and industrialization of our food supply.”
For an in-depth report see
Monsanto: A Corporate Profile
You know who Monsanto is. Even if you don’t recognize the company name, you’ve come across some of its products: maybe you’ve used Roundup weed killer on your lawn or garden, you’ve heard about the debate over treating cows with the artificial growth hormone rBGH, you’re worried about unlabeled genetically engineered organisms in your food, or you’ve learned about the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War, maybe from family members, coworkers or friends who suffered the health consequences. These may not seem related, but they all are a major part of Monsanto’s legacy.
The agriculture and life sciences company that’s known today as Monsanto is only a recent development. Most of Monsanto’s history is steeped in heavy industrial chemical production — a legacy that is extremely at odds with the environmentally friendly, feed-the-world image that the company spends millions trying to convey.
Monsanto is a global agricultural biotechnology company that specializes in genetically engineered (GE) seeds and herbicides, most notably Roundup herbicide and GE Roundup Ready seed.GE seeds have been altered with inserted genetic material to exhibit traits that repel pests or withstand the application of herbicides. In 2009, in the United States alone, nearly all (93 percent) of soybeans and four-fifths (80 percent) of corn were grown with seeds containing Monsanto-patented genetics.The company’s power and influence affects not only the U.S. agricultural industry, but also political campaigns, regulatory processes and the structure of agriculture systems all over the world.
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The recent finding in Oregon confirms what environmentalists have been saying for years and demonstrates two central points:1) The crop was inadequately tested, and 2) It often takes years for problems to become obvious.
For the Union of Concerned Scientists- this is a big-I-told-you-so. Scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman sees this as another unintended consequence of putting immortality genes into crops like wheat and corn and soybeans to make them resistant to Roundup.
The idea is that farmers can more easily weed their fields. "On the other hand, in other crops this has lead to what is literally, in the east, and especially in the Southeast, moving into our Corn Belt, an epidemic of weeds that are resistant to these herbicide, said Gurian-Sherman."
According to the millions of protestors of Monsanto within the US and around the world, Monsanto is nothing more than a corporate agriculture invader. Monsanto’s goal from inception was to support farming communities and aid the farmer in keeping up with consumer demands.
Senator Jeff Markley (D) Oregon is on it, and has demanded “USDA must move forward quickly with its investigation to determine how genetically engineered wheat arrived in this farmer’s field, and provide clear guidance to the wheat farmers throughout the Northwest to ensure that their product is marketable and meets the specifications of their customers. In order to put the appropriate measures in place before the upcoming wheat harvest, USDA must provide this guidance within the next 10 days.”
Merkley also noted that “this incident underscores the need for an agency review of field-testing practices to determine how to avoid this situation in the future.”
Note: Merkley led an effort last week to repeal the “Monsanto Protection Act,” a rider quietly and anonymously dropped into a must-pass spending bill in March that stripped federal courts of their ability to require more thorough safety review for some genetically modified seeds.
Two amendments related to genetically modified crops and specifically to the Monsanto Company made news in Washington as lawmakers continue to work on a new five-year farm bill.
One of the measures, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), sought to ensure that individual states would have the ability to enforce their own laws related to special labels for foods containing genetically modified products also known as GMOs.
Thursday, May 23, Senators defeated that amendment by a vote of 27-71.
The world is also not happy that Monsanto, with a history of questionable ethics practices and close ties to the government (FDA, USDA, EPA, lobbyists and a Supreme Court Judge) has received protection from future trouble. Slipped into a bill signed by President Barack Obama back in March is something called the “Monsanto Protection Act” which would shield Monsanto seeds and other GMO crops approved by the USDA to be grown – even if there is action in the courts against them.
Another major reason for the march is what is happening to commercial farmers around the globe. Monsanto’s patents on plant seeds no longer allows farmers to save and grow their own seeds, requiring them to buy new from Monsanto every year. If farmers attempt to grow their own heirloom varieties, they are sued by the corporate giant and there is increasing pressure for them to grown only GMO seeds. The extreme costs of farming this way has forced closure of many farmers across America and thousands of documented suicides by farmers in India.
Another reason for the march pertains to environmental concerns about the toxicity of pesticides and herbicides and their effects on nature, especially noticeable is the colony collapse disorder of pollinating honey bees. When colonies collapse due to dying honey bees, we will see fewer and fewer varieties of fruits, vegetables and nuts. The European Nation has banned the pesticides which they attribute to colony collapse disorder but as of yet the U.S. has not.
In a statement, the
Center for Food Safety called on regulators to suspend all field trials of genetically modified crops, saying: "Our farmers and food supply are severely jeopardized by such contamination episodes, yet the biotech industry responsible faces no accountability."