Monsanto Forced to Drop GM Wheat Plans

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Tuesday, 11 May 2004

The world's first genetically modified wheat is to be shelved because of consumer resistance. US agri-chemical company Monsanto has announced that it would not try to market a strain it has developed called Roundup Ready.

The company has already engineered the strain to survive the chemicals sprayed to destroy the weeds around it. But there has been commercial resistance to the product from farmers around the world. They believe that wheat is too close to an obvious food like bread to be genetically modified and sold easily.

Source: Stephen Evans at www.bbc.co.uk