GMO takeover: Transgenic canola popping up outside growing areas all over North Dakota

Thursday, October 20, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: GMO canola, contamination, health news

(NaturalNews) A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE proves that it is virtually impossible to contain genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) from pervasively spreading throughout and contaminating the environment. Researchers from the University of Arkansas (UA) have compiled data showing that wild, uncontrolled varieties of transgenic canola plants are turning up all across the state of North Dakota, a state where the crop is heavily cultivated.

The team discovered that a shocking 45 percent of all roadside plants sampled across North Dakota were GM canola varieties. They identified glyphosate resistant canola, glufosinate resistant canola, and various other mutant transgenic combinations and varieties of GM canola all lining roads and highways, even in areas relatively far from actual canola crop fields.

Canola, which is also known as rapeseed in some countries, can be quite a persistent and pervasive crop. GM varieties of canola in particular have been found to persist year after year, and spread further and further over time, all on their own without human intervention. Today, they are a type of uncontrolled weed that, by all appearances, is now impossible to contain.

The UA team stated in their paper that the uncontrolled spread of GM canola "raises questions of whether adequate oversight and monitoring protocols are in place in the US to track the environmental impact of biotech products." Such "questions," though, have already been raised numerous times, and the answer is abundantly clear: there absolutely is no meaningful oversight of the biotechnology industry at all in the US.

GMOs and GM traits have already been known to contaminate other crops, particularly through transgenic seeds and pollen spreading to nearby fields and mingling with non-GMO and organic varieties. But the US government continues to endorse GMOs, having even recently approved GM alfalfa for commercial use despite the fact that it is wholly unneeded, and will eventually contaminate the entire food supply (https://www.naturalnews.com/031139_GE_alfalfa...).

One glimmer of hope is a recent ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which established that farmers whose crops become contaminated with patented GM crops and traits can sue the companies that own and produce them for illegal trespass.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-...