Friday, July 26, 2013

Canadian Geese May Have Spread Monsanto GMO Seeds

Monsanto’s GMO lifeforms have a habit of mysteriously popping up in places where they were not expected to be found.  In the case of Canada, where GMO wheat is not approved, geese may have caused the crop’s escape from a controlled experimental site, the Ottawa Citizen reports:

Canada geese may have spread seeds of genetically modified wheat grown at the Central Experimental Farm, documents from Agriculture Canada show.

The fear is that these geese may have left poop with living GM wheat seeds that could allow GM wheat to spread outside the controlled field. The issue blew up in 2012, taking the Agriculture Canada department by surprise.

GM wheat is not approved in Canada. Many growers, including the Canadian Wheat Board, strongly oppose it, saying that growing GM wheat will make all Canadian wheat harder to sell in Europe and Asia. And the last thing any grower wants is to have ordinary wheat crops accidentally mixed with the GM varieties.  This also happened last month in Oregon, where a farmer discovered transgenic wheat growing on his land. He had never planted any and the source remains unknown, but Japan and South Korean briefly banned U.S. wheat imports.

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