No Monsanto wheat!

"We don't want it" - A message as simple as that is finally being heard.

Monsanto, the world's biggest producer of GM crops and the related herbicides, backed down for economic reasons. Against consumer and farmers wishes there is no market for GM wheat in Europe: foreign buyers started looking for alternative sources in Australia and Eastern Europe, and US and Canadian farmers were not prepared to take the chance of some short term benefits, a lot of future problems, and the loss of a world market over night. Earlier this year, Monsanto had already closed its grain research facilities in Europe. Two GM wheat field trials of Syngenta were destroyed in Germany [2].

Over the last year in Europe, the big biotech companies have been dropping out of one GM project after the other: Monsato and Syngenta dropped GM sugar beet, while Bayer decided not to market GM maize in the UK even though they had got permission, and Spain has withdrawn Bt176 maize from the market: the only GM crop commercially grown in the EU. Whole regions have gone GM-free [1 | 2]. Finally, this is reflecting back on shareholders opions and the US markets...

[ Reclaim the Commons 3-9 June San Fransisco, USA | Corporate Watch | GM Watch | etc group | Boycott Bayer | BiotechIMC | anti-GM slam poetry ]

Since the early 1990s, before there was even any GM plant growing in a field, consumers in Europe said that they did not want GM food. Companies like Monsanto, however, went ahead, trying to sell products against the explicit wishes and needs of consumers. Monsanto's main products are the herbicide 'Roundup' and crops resistant to it. Consumers have nothing to gain from it and for farmers it's finally becoming obvious that there isn't much to gain in the long run either. As a matter of fact, GM rape seed (canola) has become a threat to the Canadian agricultural economy. Monsanto is sueing farmers like Percy Schmeiser for patent violation, while the company can't even keep their own seed un-contaminated. The GM herbicide resistance is now found in at least 90 percent of the certified (and supposedly GM free) seeds in Canada - and double and triple herbicide resistant crop plants become a major problem to all farmers.

But Monsanto went ahead... trying to test and introduce GM wheat. In Europe even stricter labelling rules came into force on 18 May 2004, and wheat field trials (as well as many others) were destroyed. The picture is as clear as always: European consumers do not want GM crops. The message reached farmers in the US and Canada. Europe is the biggest export market for North American wheat, especially for bread. The export market would break down overnight. Already, now, producers in Europe have been seeking alternative wheat supplies from Australia and Eastern Europe.

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