The tip that led to the discovery of rogue GMO wheat in the Pacific Northwest reached the USDA on June 14, more than six weeks before the incident was made public. Officials spent the time in verifying it was a genetically-engineered variety from Monsanto and to begin testing all the wheat grown on the farm in Washington State where 22 stalks of wheat survived a dose of herbicide that should have killed them.
So far, the tests have been negative, the USDA said in a chronology of the incident. It was the second time since April 2013 that GE wheat was found growing on a U.S. grain farm. The earlier incident was in eastern Oregon. In both instances, “volunteer” wheat sprouted in fields that were fallow for the year.
GMO wheat is not approved for sale or cultivation anywhere in the world.
“On June 14, a farmer reported to USDA that a small number of wheat plants growing in an unplanted field on his property had survived treatment with glyphosate,” said USDA. Glyphosate is the most widely used weedkiller in the world. Monsanto used biotechnology to create corn, soybean and cotton varieties that withstand glyphosate. It shuttered experiments with GMO-tolerant wheat a decade ago.
On June 17, the USDA’s biotech regulatory agency determined the wheat was glyphosate-resistant, and on June 23 a trio of USDA agencies “confirmed that the wheat was genetically engineered,” says the chronology. “On July 21, USDA confirmed the GE wheat in question was MON 71700 developed by Monsanto.” A week later, USDA announced the discovery, saying that “prompt and thorough action” indicated no GE wheat was in the food supply.
In its chronological account the agency said, “We are completing testing of the farmer’s harvest for the presence of GE material. So far, all tests are negative. We are also working to make sure tests are delivered to our trading partners as quickly as possible.
“Because of privacy concerns, APHIS [the biotech regulator] will not be sharing the farmer’s name or location of the field.”
Wheat is grown in the southeastern one-third of Washington State, often the fourth-largest wheat state in the nation. Last year, Washington grew 111.5 million bushels of wheat, 5 percent of the U.S. total.
Japan and South Korea, the two leading customers for wheat from the Pacific Northwest, are deferring purchases of U.S. wheat until they have in hand a Monsanto-developed test for the strain found in Washington, said Capital Press. U.S. Wheat Associates, a trade group, said South Korea was expected to begin tests within a matter of days, while it could be two or three weeks before Japan puts the new test into action. A U.S. Wheat spokesman told Capital Press that no other countries have restricted purchase or requested testing of U.S. wheat.
The wheat variety found in Washington State is similar to the strain found in Oregon in 2013. The USDA devoted months to its investigation of that case but never found the source.
In 2014, the agency reported that GMO wheat developed by Monsanto was found growing on a Montana State University research farm that had been the site of field tests of Monsanto wheat more than a decade earlier. “The incident is considered a regulatory compliance issue,” said USDA. “As such, Monsanto and SARC [MSU’s Southern Agricultural Research Center] were issued warning letters for failing to adhere to performance standards for field trials.”