June 24, 2013
The discovery of unapproved Rounup Ready soft white wheat in eastern Oregon has been called a “mystery.”
It is no mystery. Someone planted it.
The questions are who and where did the seed come from?
Guarantee it was not dropped from the sky by Lucifer masquerading as Monsanto.
The last year Monsanto tested GMO wheat in Oregon was 2001 — 12 years ago. Monsanto did not have any test sites near the mystery find. Wheat seed cannot lay dormant in the soil for more than a decade and still germinate. It is highly unlikely that a bag of conventional wheat seed was inadvertently contaminated by RR wheat. Besides, wherever experimental seed is processed, government regulations and the seed companies themselves demand thorough machinery clean-out procedures.
Did the yet unidentified growers somehow get hold of the unregulated seed, plant it deliberately and then cry wolf to appease the anti-GMO radicals? Until the grower is identified and tells his side of the story, we can only speculate. It is curious why and when he sprayed Roundup on this mysterious wheat, which is how he reportedly discovered the rogue plants. Why would anyone spray a wheat field with glyphosate in the first place?
It is interesting that this comtaminated wheat find was in eastern Oregon. One of the plantiffs in the protracted and expensive anti-RR alfalfa lawsuit operates a seed plant in eastern Oregon. Millions were spent challenging the planting of RR alfalfa to no avail. Sore loser? Sabatoge. Monsanto has not ruled that out. I wouldn’t either.
While this so-called GMO disaster is a bit suspicious at first blush, it is no joke to Oregon wheat farmers. The U.S.exported $8.1 billion worth of wheat in 2012 — nearly half of the total $17.9 billion U.S. wheat crop.
Following the USDA’s confirmation of GMO contamination, Japan immediately canceled a 25,000-ton import of soft white wheat, and both South Korea and Europe announced more stringent testing of American wheat shipments. Ninety percent of Oregon’s soft white wheat is exported to Asia.
Monsanto withdrew its application to develop the variety in 2004, because export markets didn't want GM wheat. There was not enough profit potential in RR wheat for Monsanto to fight GMO embargos, so it dropped the program. The irony of this GMO controversy is that Oregon wheat growers plant a herbicide resistant wheat. It’s resistant to imazamox, not glyphosate. Oregon wheat growers are quick to point out that the Clearfield herbicide-resistant wheat variety was not developed using DNA insertion. Apparently, however, it was bred traditionally using DNA marker technology, which was a biotechnology development. This technology allows breeders to more quickly identify desirable genes. It significantly reduces the time it takes to develop a new wheat variety. In reality, Clearfield wheat is a product of biotechnology.
Why is one plant development method accepted and another isn't? "In countries where your belly button is chewing on your backbone, it's probably not an issue," Darren Padget, a fifth-generation eastern Oregon wheat grower was quoted in The Oregonian newspaper.
USDA is investigating. I suspect researchers will be able to trace the DNA in the glyphosate wheat to its origin. It will be a trail to the truth.
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