On 10 May 2004, the Monsanto Company made
an about-turn from previous strong promotion of its new
herbicide resistant (Roundup Ready) GM wheat variety to
announce that it was suspending further development. In
the announcement, the company stated that they would
defer all further efforts to introduce Roundup Ready
wheat and that they would discontinue breeding and field
level research of the crop until such time that other
wheat biotechnology traits were introduced.
This announcement says that the company was suspending
R&D and does not say that it is withdrawing from the
field, and also stated that it was not withdrawing the
applications for approval that have already been
submitted. This is effectively a setback for the company,
and something close to a declaration of withdrawal.
Monsanto applied for approval of the GM wheat variety
simultaneously in the USA and Canada in 2002, and was
working for a start to cultivation in 2005. However,
strong resistance from both producers and consumers all
over the world has made commercialization all but
impossible. Especially the strong opposition from the
largest markets, Japanese and Korean consumers, to GE
wheat has caused panic to spread among the producers of
North America.
From 21 to 28 March 2004, a group of six Japanese
consumer representatives, including representatives from
the No! GMO Campaign, visited Canada and the USA to
present a petition to opposing the GM wheat to the
Canadian federal government and a state government of the
USA (North Dakota). The petition was signed by 414
organizations representing over 1.2 million Japanese
people. It is thought that this visit and the submission
of the petition had a very strong effect on public and
official thinking in the two countries.
Effectively this means that Japanese consumer pressure
has been successful in forcing Monsanto to suspend
development of both GM rice and GM wheat. The company has
tried to sell its GM crops to the world using its
financial and political power, but it has now been shown
that if Japanese consumers form strong links with and
fight alongside people all over the world they will not
be beaten.
e-mail no-gmo@jca.apc.org
http://www.no-gmo.org
