The history of genetically modified food just marked a very disturbing milestone
Genetically modified crops? Don’t worry about a thing!
That’s the message from virtually everyone who has a financial interest in the development of GM agriculture– as well as the government regulators who never met a lucrative industry they didn’t love.
Meanwhile, we now have the first confirmed report of GM plants growing wild in the U.S.–along roadsides, behind gas stations and grocery stores, in cemeteries and ball parks.
In other words, we’ve crossed the threshold. No going back.
University of Arkansas researchers call their discovery “a large-scale escape” of GM canola plants, which they found throughout a 3,300 mile road trip in the Dakotas.
All of the GM canola varieties found were Roundup Ready– that is, they were modified to withstand constant drenching with Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. But one variety was different. It was a brand new variety, bred in the wild, from two of the original GM varieties.
Sounds like Act I, Scene I of an environmental disaster movie.
The Arkansas team believes that as the wild canola continues to multiply, the problem of Roundup resistance in weeds will become much worse, producing superweeds that require highly toxic herbicides.
As I’ve mentioned before, this Roundup-resistant superweed problem has caused many farmers to simply abandon farmland that gets choked with massive weeds. As one agricultural expert told the New York Times, “It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen.”
I’ll bet there are plenty of farmers out there who would do anything to get the Roundup Ready GM genie back in the bottle.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Source:
“Genetically modified canola found growing wild in Dakota” Stephanie Dearing, Digital Journal, 8/6/10, digitaljournal.com


