GE History - A brief overview

1. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Soy

In 1995 it was announced in the Crop Science journal that a Glyphosate tolerant soybean line had been developed.

Portions of each end of the intended genetic code were missing 1.

When food from this crop was introduced to the UK, soy allergies went up 50% 2.

ANZFA was told that Australians may have been eating food from this crop from December 1996, but approved food from the crop for Australian consumption reportedly in 2000.

After approval, ANZFA put out a statement in July 2000 to say that Monsanto had found two extra pieces of new genetic code, in two unexpected places 3.

In 2001 researchers reported that there was a large section of unidentifiable DNA after one of these extra pieces of code 4.

In 2003 part of that code was identified as belonging to non-GM soy – the rest has not been identified 5.

1. Development, Identification, and Characterization of a Glyphosate-Tolerant Soybean Line; Padgette SR et al; Crop Sci 35:1451-1461 (1995)
2. UK York Laboratory; Genetic Roulette; Jeffrey M. Smith; p50-51; ISBN 978-0-646-48131-9
3. Application A338 - Glyphosate Tolerant Soybean GTS 40-3-2
4. Characterisation of the Roundup Ready soybean insert; Windels P et al; Eur Food Res Technol (2001) 213:107-112
5. Detection and characterization of recombinant DNA in the Roundup Ready soybean insert; Lau L-T et al; Food Control Vol.15, Issue 6, September 2004, pp 471-478