Alfalfa, the world’s most important forage crop, ranks as a top five crop in terms of economic value and total acreage in the United States. Glyphosate-resistant GE alfalfa was planted on 80,000 ha in 2006 in the US. A study (Item 1) by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms that alfalfa has joined oilseed rape as a GE crop that has dispersed beyond cultivated fields.

The study involved Monsanto’s Roundup Ready GR alfalfa. The researchers scouted the roadsides of three important alfalfa-growing areas in California, Idaho and Washington for feral (wild) alfalfa stands. Of 4,580 sites surveyed, feral plants were observed at 404 sites. Twenty-seven percent of these sites had GE plants. The researchers believe that most of these feral populations likely grew from seeds spilled during alfalfa production or transport. They also found clear evidence that the glyphosate resistance gene was being spread by bees, suggesting that “transgenic plants could spread transgenes to neighboring feral plants, and potentially to neighboring non-GE fields”.