Monday, May 10, 2004
Monsanto abondons GM wheat
Monsanto has abandoned plans to introduce GM wheat on to the world market despite spending seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing the crop.
The decision, announced yesterday, is a major fillip for the anti-GM lobby and follows pressure from US and Canadian farmers who feared the introduction of GM wheat would lead to the collapse of their billion-dollar markets in Europe and Japan.
Monsanto, the world's biggest seller of GM seeds, had looked to the development and introduction of GM wheat to fulfil a dream of dominating the world's bread market.
The company had proved that GM wheat increased yields by 5% to 15% but consumer resistance to the idea of eating GM bread - particularly in Europe - meant the biggest part of the US export market would disappear overnight.
In yesterday's statement, Monsanto acknowledged that there was not a sufficient market to make the introduction of its GM wheat worthwhile and said it was concentrating on corn (maize or sweetcorn), cotton and oilseeds such as rape, where it already has a large seed market.
Story.
posted by chris at 10:23 PM
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