Monsanto delays bio-wheat project

ST. LOUIS — Monsanto Co. is halting development of genetically engineered wheat that would have been able to withstand its popular Roundup herbicide, the company said Monday.

Since 1997, the St. Louis-based agricultural and biotech company had been developing a Roundup Ready variety of hard red spring wheat. Instead, Monsanto said it will focus on development of new and improved biotech traits in corn, cotton and oilseeds.

“As a result of our portfolio review and dialogue with wheat industry leaders, we recognize the business opportunities with Roundup Ready spring wheat are less attractive relative to Monsanto’s other commercial priorities,” said Carl Casale, Monsanto’s executive vice president.

Some farm and consumer groups asked the government last year to suspend development of the biotech grain, expressing concern that U.S. farmers could lose overseas clients if genetically engineered wheat pollinates with other crops.

In a petition filed in March 2003 with the Agriculture Department, the groups said wheat genetically designed to tolerate Roundup could lead to grain mix-ups in the field and in shipments, making some exports unacceptable to trading partners who oppose biotech crops.

“Monsanto has run up against the reality of market rejection from both farmers and consumers and they realize that basically no one wanted this stuff,” said Joe Mendelson, legal director for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, an opponent of genetically engineered crops. “They’re in full retreat.”

Casale said that acreage planted in the U.S. and Canadian spring wheat markets have declined nearly 25 percent since 1997.

“This technology adds value for only a segment of spring wheat growers, resulting in a lack of widespread wheat industry alignment, unlike the alignment we see in other crops where biotechnology is broadly applied,” Casale said. “These factors underscore the difficulty of bringing new technologies to the wheat market at this time.

“We will continue to monitor the wheat industry’s desire for crop improvements, via breeding and biotechnology, to determine if and when it might be practical to move forward with a biotech wheat product,” Casale said.

Monsanto began trying to develop Roundup-tolerant wheat in 1997. The company said that six years of field tests by Monsanto as well as academic researchers showed that the Roundup Ready wheat offered the potential to increase yields by 5-15 percent.

Monsanto’s investment in wheat in fiscal year 2004 has been less than $5 million, or less than 1 percent of the company’s $500 million research and development budget, company officials said.

In February, China appeared to show more interest in biotech products by reducing paperwork requirements for imports of five Monsanto varieties of genetically modified corn, soybeans and cotton. The approvals raised expectations that China might also accept Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat. That would be a big inducement for American growers, as China is the world’s largest wheat consumer.

But other nations were opposed. Japan, America’s top wheat importer, has said it will accept no wheat — conventional or biotech — from any nation that grows biotech wheat.