WASHINGTON—Genetically engineered wheat has surfaced at a second unauthorized location in the U.S., the Agriculture Department said, raising new questions about agricultural companies' oversight of biotech crops.
The USDA said Friday that it began an investigation into genetically engineered plants discovered in July at Montana State University's Southern Agricultural Research Center.
The finding came as the USDA said it closed an investigation into a similar incident in Oregon, which had prompted some Asian countries to temporarily suspend U.S. wheat imports last year. The agency said Friday that it couldn't determine how biotech wheat got on the 125-acre Oregon farm but that it appeared to be an isolated incident.

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No genetically modified wheat has been approved for commercial use in the U.S., although genetic engineers have worked off and on for years to develop varieties that can withstand pesticides. GMO corn and soybeans are widely grown in the U.S.
The USDA said both the wheat found in Oregon and in Montana were developed by Monsanto Co. MON -0.07% , though agency officials said the two events appeared unrelated. The biotech seed company and researchers had grown GMO wheat at the Montana State University facility between 2000 and 2003 in USDA-authorized field trials.
Monsanto said it was cooperating with the government's investigation, though a spokeswoman declined to confirm the company developed the wheat in question. The St. Louis company did develop the wheat found in Oregon, according to the USDA.
"While we believe our compliance program is best in class, we continuously review our processes and procedures to improve them, including site selection, field trial isolation, and verification and auditing of field trial locations," said Philip Miller, global regulatory affairs lead for Monsanto.
The agency's investigation into the Montana finding "is focusing on why [genetically engineered] wheat was found growing at the research facility location," the USDA said. Department officials will inspect wheat test fields planted this year and follow up after harvest to ensure "unintended GE wheat" isn't growing elsewhere, the agency said.
After the rogue GMO wheat was discovered last year in Oregon, Japan said it would hold back shipments of some wheat imports, and some South Korean flour mills suspended purchases of U.S. wheat.
The Montana State University research center doesn't operate as a commercial farm so there should be less cause for concern among importers of U.S. wheat, said Bernadette Juarez, a director of investigative and enforcement services at the USDA.
"We see the situation in Montana and Oregon as being very different," she said.
The Montana discovery comes at a time of heightened sensitivity in the global grain trade. U.S. corn exports to China earlier this year largely dried up after the country took a tougher stance against corn containing genetic modifications that China has yet to approve. U.S. grain-trading companies have estimated that rejected corn shipments and the lack of new orders from China have cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, which questions the safety of genetically engineered crops, said the USDA appears ill-equipped to manage the system for testing modified crops and called for Congress to look into the process.
"If you don't know how something happens, you don't know how to prevent it," Mr. Kimbrell said.
Monsanto said previously that its own analysis suggested that the Oregon wheat didn't come from seed left in the soil or from pollen drifting on the wind from other fields, and that sabotage was likely the cause.