Organic farmer warns
of genetic contamination
Source: The Associated Press
November 3, 2008
via CheckBiotech
PHILOMATH,
Frank Morton says he
is concerned about modified sugar beet seeds that scientists with agricultural
giant Monsanto have tweaked to resist Roundup, the company's most popular weed
killer.
In the past two years, the humble commodity crop has quietly
become the valley's first to incorporate genetic engineering wholesale.
More than four-fifths of the nation's corn, cotton and
soybean crops already are altered to resist pesticides and insects.
Morton, 53, worries that sugar beet pollen can
cross-fertilize table beet and Swiss chard plants, both of which he grows for
seed.
Each sugar beet flower contains thousands of pollen
granules, and researchers have found the windblown pollen miles in the air and
miles away from its home field.
"Who's responsible if it isn't on a leash?" said
Morton, a certified organic grower.
Morton began organic farming in the Willamette Valley 20
years ago, growing lettuce varieties for restaurants. He considers it a moral
obligation to keep his seeds free of contamination from transgenic crops.
If any of his crop was contaminated
with any detectable amount of transgenic sugar beet pollen, "my product
becomes worthless," he said.
Earlier this year, activists including Morton filed suit
against the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop Roundup Ready sugar beets.
A similar suit that included an eastern
The Department of Agriculture restricts the spread of
genetically modified crops when they're being tested.
The department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
fined The Scotts Co. $500,000 last November after Roundup Ready creeping bentgrass spread during field trials in
Source: The Associated Press
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