Genetically Modified Wheat Found in MT

Genetically modified wheat, unapproved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has been found in Huntley, Montana.

Just today, the USDA announced it will investigate a occurrence of wheat contamination in Montana. At the same time, USDA will discontinue its investigation into a GM wheat contamination in Oregon, in which USDA could not find a cause or source of the GM seed.

The Montana contamination was found at Montana State University’s Southern Agriculture Research Center, in Huntley, formerly a testing location for Monsanto’s GM wheat between 2000 and 2003.

The Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is the arm of USDA that investigates contaminations. APHIS will focus on why GM wheat was found growing 11 years after it was supposed to have been completely destroyed, or else saved under tight security.

Dena Hoff, an organic farmer near Glendive and member of Northern Plains Resource Council, has been working to strengthen test plot rules to protect organic and conventional farmers from contamination. “The USDA needs to be held responsible for this,” she said. “It is their lack of regulation and rule-making that has allowed this to happen. They decided to ignore the side of common sense, that we can’t control nature, and instead to go with industry control.”

Wheat is Montana’s # 1 export, bringing in over $1.7 billion to the state annually. 80% of Montana’s wheat is exported to Asian markets that will not buy genetically modified crops. When GM wheat was discovered in Oregon last year, Asian markets closed their doors to American White Wheat imports for several weeks, dropping wheat prices across the country.

“This could cost our Montana wheat market,” Dena Hoff added. “If this is in Huntley, it is probably in several more places, too. The reason we haven’t found it yet is that we haven’t been looking. We cannot continue to put our farmers at risk to recklessly test new crops, just to enlarge Monsanto’s profit margin. There has to be a better way.