|
 There was no evidence the wheat had entered the food supply, the
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a
statement on Friday. The wheat is resistant to glyphosate, a widely
used herbicide commonly referred to as Roundup.
"USDA is collaborating with our state, industry and trading
partners, and we are committed to providing all our partners with
timely and transparent information about our findings," the
statement said.
There are currently no commercially approved genetically modified
wheat varieties, and incidences of rogue plants are rare. However,
unapproved plants were found in 2018 in Alberta, Canada, in 2016 in
Washington state, in 2014 in Montana and in 2013 in Oregon.
A Bayer Crop Science spokeswoman said the latest finding may have
occurred on the site of a former field trial. Last year Bayer bought
Monsanto, which in the late 1990s and early 2000s developed wheat
genetically modified to withstand its Roundup herbicide, a weed
killer containing glyphosate.
Monsanto shelved the genetically engineered wheat in 2004 amid
market concern about rejection from foreign buyers. The United
States was the world's second-largest wheat exporter after Russia in
the 2018/19 marketing year.
"We have been informed by USDA of a possible detection of GM wheat
in Washington State, possibly on the site of a former field trial,"
Bayer Crop Sciences spokeswoman Charla Lord said.
[to top of second column] |
"We are cooperating with USDA to gather more information and facts
as the agency reviews the situation," Lord said.
Samples of the wheat plants from the field in Washington were sent
to the USDA's Federal Grain Inspection Service lab in Kansas City,
Missouri, as well as a USDA lab in Pullman, Washington, for testing
and confirmation, according to a joint statement from the National
Association of Wheat Growers and U.S. Wheat Associates, a trade
group that promotes U.S. wheat sales.
Bayer, which inherited litigation over Roundup with its $63 billion
acquisition of Monsanto last year, faces lawsuits by more than
13,400 plaintiffs in the United States, alleging the product causes
cancer.
A California jury last month awarded more than $2 billion to a
couple who claimed Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It
was the largest U.S. jury verdict to date against the company in
litigation over the chemical.
(Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Sandra
Maler)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
