Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries canceled its plan to buy 24,926 tons of western-white wheat from the U.S. Thursday after the discovery of genetically modified wheat in an Oregon field.
The wheat is a strain that had been field-tested by Monsanto from 1998-2005, which withdrew its application for approval when it became clear international buyers would likely avoid GMO wheat. Because the wheat has not been approved by the federal government, it’s illegal to grow or sell.
The U.S. is the world’s largest wheat exporter.
“This will have an impact worldwide, because our trading partners do not want genetically modified wheat,” Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union in New York, said in an interview. “This crop may be safe to eat, or it may not be. We don’t know because we haven’t done the proper scrutiny.”
Of course, no other genetically modified crops have been properly safety tested. The first patents for genetic modification of crops were filed just 30 years ago, in 1983. There’s no way to tell in that short of a time frame the real effects of GMO crops on the health of people, animals or the environment.
There is an astrological angle to this. Last weekend’s lunar eclipse across the Gemini/Sagittarius axis aspected one of the most sensitive lines in Monsanto’s chart — its midheaven. This incident happened the same week as the first worldwide protest against genetically modified foods, which was Saturday, May 25.
The Oregon farmer who made the discovery did so when he tried to kill wheat using Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer and found that several plants survived. The rogue wheat strain had been specifically modified to resist Roundup (specifically, the key ingredient glyphosate) — that’s to say, it was Roundup Ready wheat.
The farmer then rented an airplane and sprayed Agent Orange on the wheat but it only grew stronger. He then rented a small fighter plane and tried to bomb it several times, but it survived that too. Before using a thermonuclear device, he decided to call the Associated Press. Okay, just kidding about everything in this paragraph.