I explained my interest in GM issues and in Rough Rider wheat in particular.
First, he wanted to make sure I understood, which I didn’t, that the GM wheat should be referred to as Roundup Ready® or GM wheat because Roughrider Genetics® is a trade name for the NDSU Research Foundation’s controlled licensing program, like their Roughrider Genetics® Roundup Ready® soybeans. Roundup Ready® wheat was never marketed and so there never was Roughrider Genetics® GM Wheat.
The trait of being Roundup resistant is patented by Monsanto. They work out agreements with others to introduce the trait into a line of wheat specially bred to a local environment. It takes two major agreements with a university before a new GM product can be brought to the public.
Rr-ready wheat had progressed only through the first agreement stage and had not reached the second when Monsanto withdrew the wheat.
There are three classes of seeds: Foundation class, Registered class, and
Certified class, the first being the purest. NDSU through its Foundation Seedstocks
Project develops Foundation class seed, which they then sell to seedsmen, who,
in turn, sell “certified” seed to farmers.
Why did Monsanto withdraw Rr-ready wheat?
There were concerns about the export market. It wasn’t clear that Canada was going to go along with the agreement that Rr-wheat would be released simultaneously in the US and Canada. Farmers had concern about whether or not markets would support it. Monsanto made the decision.
There was also resistance from some groups, such as organic farmers or the Dakota Resource Council who adamantly opposed the release. Some of the resistance groups such as Greenpeace in some parts of the world have been accused of using scare tactics and unreliable science. The general public didn’t seem to be too concerned, but they did want to know that it was safe. There is quite a difference between consumers in the US and in Europe. There were, however, scientists in the UK who came out in support of further research into GM products. There has not been any direct activity by Earth Liberation Front in the area, at least to his knowledge, but researchers do keep location of test plots secret.
Are you aware of the letter from Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture to President Chapman in which they talk about liabilities of release GM wheat? What kind of effect did it have?
He was copied on it, but NDSU Research Foundation had not yet entered a commercialization
agreement with Monsanto, so the letter was probably premature and the NDSU
Research Foundation didn’t have much influence on making a decision,
even though it was somewhat threatening. NDSU was a long way from release.
Research on Rr-ready wheat at NDSU is being discontinued.
We talked briefly about the role of technical communicators in situations
like these—PR in companies, writers in resistance groups, perhaps creators
of forums for discussion. He suggested that I talk with Duane Hauck, Director
or Extension for NDSU, because he tried to do set up such a form, calling it “Co-Existence.” There
were dialogues among NDSU researchers, GM farmers, and organic farmers, but
it is no longer going on.
Dale Sullivan