The Monsanto Company will pay $2.4 million to settle a dispute with Idaho, Washington and Oregon farmers over genetically modified wheat that mysteriously sprouted on an Oregon farm. Discovery of the herbicide resistant wheat in an Oregon field last year prompted Japan and South Korea - both big markets for soft white wheat - to suspend their imports. The European Union also imposed more rigorous testing of US shipments.
The GMO wheat was developed by Monsanto in 1997. It's commonly called Roundup Ready wheat, meaning it's resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in a widely used weed killer. Test plots were planted until 2005 when the company pulled its application to the USDA to market the engineered grain.
After discovery of the GMO wheat in Oregon last year, several Idaho grain growers filed a federal suit against Monsanto, claiming the company failed to control cross-pollination of seeds.
The settlement will pay $50,000 each to Idaho, Washington and Oregon grain growers associations, and slightly more than 2-million dollars to the Idaho farmers who filed the suit. They contended that discovery of the modified grain in Oregon slashed market prices for soft white wheat, and forced the farmers to pay for extensive testing of their crops to show they were not contaminated.
