Legislating Restrictions on Biotech Crops on Economic and Social Grounds: Roundup Ready Wheat The Issue in Brief

On May 10, 2004, Monsanto Company announced the suspension of its plans to commercialize Roundup Ready (RR) wheat.372 This decision did not come in response to any health or environmental regulatory concern. Regulatory review was underway at APHIS and FDA, with most observers not expecting either agency to object to the product.373 Monsanto’s decision was driven, rather, by a declining wheat market and the apparent unreadiness of the market to accept the product. U.S. wheat producers had voiced concerns that their customers—foreign and domestic—might not accept RR wheat and that key export markets, such as Japan and Europe, might be closed to all U.S. wheat exports due to concerns within those markets that it would not be possible for the marketplace to adequately segregate biotech and nonbiotech wheat. Prior to Monsanto’s decision, a number of U.S. wheat producers and other food system stakeholders had mounted a campaign in opposition to the commercialization of RR wheat, at least until the market acceptance issues had been resolved—a campaign that included efforts to persuade state legislators to take action against the commercialization of Roundup Ready wheat.