Unapproved GM Wheat Contamination in Washington State

By Brandon Turbeville

An investigation is now being launched for a third time in three years by both federal and state officials regarding the discovery of 22 unapproved genetically modified wheat plants in a Washington state farm field.

The U.S. Deportment of Agriculture announced that the GMO wheat was found in a field that had not been planted since 2015 according the Washington state Department of Agriculture. The plants were identified as being one of Monsanto’s experimental varieties. The USDA is currently testing grain from the farmer’s other wheat fields and has said that the grain has not been traced in commercial supplies.

Still, officials have reached out to at least one trade group and alerted importers the day before the public announcement. South Korea, who temporarily banned the importation of U.S. wheat in 2013, stated that it will step up quarantine measures for U.S. feed wheat shipments.

Both the USDA and the FDA are assuring consumers that the presence of the wheat both in the field and potentially the food supply would not present any safety concerns. This is not surprising considering the fact that the FDA and the USDA have long been more than amenable to GMOs.

This is not the first incident of GMO contamination in recent years. In fact, in the last three years there have been three discoveries of GMO crops contaminating non-GMO fields. In 2013, GMO wheat was found on an Oregon farm. One year later, in 2014, it was discovered in a field at a University research center in Montana.

Monsanto in its statement, said that the type of GM wheat found in Washington state is similar to the GM wheat found in Oregon in 2013. What is perhaps even more concerning than the issue of cross-contamination and environmental pollution is the obvious persistence of these GM products over time.

The plants are a form of GM wheat that had been planted and researched in “limited field trials” in the Pacific Northwest between 1998 and 2001. In other words, at least 12 years after the trials were conducted. The GM wheat is popping up all across the country, interestingly enough, in increasing amounts. It has long been argued by critics of GMOs that introducing dangerous types of biotechnology would not only pose a risk to human health, but also provide the potential for a irreversible contamination of the natural environment.

Monsanto’s ticking time bombs now appear to be detonating more than two decades after Americans were told to stop being paranoid about the dangers of GMOs that “science” assured them did not exist. It is now time for Americans to realize that major corporations, “scientists,” and their government does not always have their best interest at heart.

In addition, it is time for them to consider what the American food system would have been like had the United States banned GMOs from the start.

Image: Natural Blaze, Pixabay

This article (Officials Go Door to Door Asking for Urine Samples During U.S. Zika Outbreak) can be republished under a Creative Commons license with  attribution to Brandon Turbeville and Natural Blaze.com. 

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies,Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 600 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.