While numerous farm and environmental groups celebrated Monsanto’s decision to shelve its Roundup Ready spring wheat project, other farmers and organizations are not all that happy with the decision.

In mid-May, Monsanto announced that it was postponing the introduction of Roundup Ready wheat until a time when other wheat biotechnology traits are being introduced. Instead, the company will concentrate research and development investments to accelerate the development of both new and improved traits in corn, cotton and oilseed crops. The Roundup Ready technology means that the crop’s genes had been manipulated to make the crop immune to the effects of glyphosate herbicide.

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat was targeted for Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana where 90 percent of the nation’s hard red spring wheat is grown. It would also be used in western Canada.

Benefits Didn’t Get Sold

While a number of foreign buyers of spring wheat are not willing to buy genetically modified grain, many of the critical issues dealing with grain segregation are being solved. While there are a number of benefits to biotechnology, wheat industry officials say customer wariness and the potential rejection of U.S. grown wheat are of great concern.

Yet food processors such as General Mills believe herbicide-resistant wheat will offer little benefit to consumers. They indicate that there has been considerable opposition to genetically modified foods in Japan and Europe.

In Canada, officials of the Canadian Wheat Board are praising Monsanto’s decision to postpone introduction of Roundup Ready spring wheat. This is…