Japanese Want US to Reject GM

Reuters 29mar04

Japanese consumer groups warned the United States on Friday that the country would reject U.S. wheat products if Monsanto Co. releases a controversial genetically modified wheat variety.

Representatives of the Consumers Union of Japan, along with several other Japanese environmental and consumer groups, met Friday morning in North Dakota with state and federal agricultural leaders, presenting them with a petition signed by 414 Japanese organizations urging a rejection of biotech wheat.

The delegation was in North Dakota because the state is the top U.S. producer of hard red spring wheat, and is the planned U.S. launching pad for Monsanto's biotech wheat product. Japan is the No. 1 buyer of North Dakota's wheat, purchasing about 50 million bushels a year.

"The Japanese consumers will... certainly resist GM wheat or GM wheat products," Keisuke Amagasa, a representative of the No! GMO Campaign of Japan, said through a translator. "We would hope the people of North Dakota would also oppose the cultivation of Monsanto's Roundup Ready wheat."

Amagasa said flour and milling associations in Japan have said they won't import genetically modified wheat because of the negative consumer sentiment that has already successfully derailed some other biotech products.

The Japanese delegation said Japan would stop buying wheat altogether from the United States and would buy from competitors like Canada or Australia to avoid any risk of receiving biotech wheat.

Japan is only one of many countries that have expressed reservations on buying from the United States if biotech wheat is grown here.

North Dakota's agricultural leaders acknowledged the concerns Friday and said they were wrestling with how to comply with customers' desires while still pursuing the benefits they believe lie in biotechnology.

"Wheat is the largest crop we grow in this state," said North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. "This represents a fundamental choice we have to make."

Monsanto is currently in the final phases of seeking regulatory approval of the world's first biotech wheat variety, which is engineered to tolerate weed-killing chemicals.

Final U.S. approval is expected by the fall of 2005 or spring of 2006, North Dakota Wheat Commission marketing specialist Judge Barth told the Japanese.

Monsanto did not attend the meeting Friday, but has said in the past that it will not release a biotech wheat product until there is sufficient market acceptance. It has also indicated that it may cease researching future biotech traits unless U.S. wheat growers embrace this initial biotech wheat product.