Just over three months after the country's North-Eastern wheat industry was hobbled by the discovery of unlicensed genetically modified wheat growing in an Oregon farmer's field, the contamination of an export shipment of alfalfa with GM material has led to further worries for growers in the United States.

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An export shipment of alfalfa from Washington State has been found to contain herbicide resistant alfalfa. The farmer whose alfalfa was rejected said the GM trait should not have been present in his crop and his claim has led to a fresh round of testing by US Department of Agriculture scientists.

Unlike the wheat discovered in late May, GM alfalfa is licensed for production in the US. However, many of the country's trade partners demand GM-free export crops so any contamination would have serious ramifications, potentially similar to those seen in June when numerous wheat buying states suspended imports from the US as a result of the GM wheat discovery.  

Grown mostly for feed, alfalfa is the United States' fourth most widely grown field crop. Alfalfa exports are worth over $1.25 billion to US farmers. Organic dairy farmers also rely on the crop, and contamination could cause them to lose faith in alfalfa as a feed.

The contamination was discovered in late August, and testing has been carried out since, the results of which should be available by the end of this week. US agriculture officials told news agency Reuters that the cause of the contamination remains unclear.

News of the contamination will shake Pro-GM Washingtonians, coming as it does in the run-up to a state ballot on GM labelling; in November, Washington State citizens will go to the polls to decide the fate of Initiative 522, new legislation that would introduce mandatory labelling on products containing GM organisms.   

GM alfalfa, which is the first genetically modified perennial to be grown commercially in the US, was licensed two years ago. The crop was widely resisted as it is pollinated by honey bees and anti-GM campaigners warned that it would be almost impossible to contain. Opposition to the commercialisation of GM alfalfa was so fierce that USDA was forced to conduct rigorous analysis of the GM varieties' effects on conventional farmers and the environment for the first time in the 20 year history of GM crops.

Reacting on Thursday, the US-based Center for Food Safety said the two discoveries of GM contamination, occurring in such close succession, highlighted the "inadequacy of the U.S. regulatory structure for GM crops."   

The Centre's executive director Andrew Kimbrell said, "Center for Food Safety has vigorously opposed the introduction of GE alfalfa, precisely because it was virtually certain to contaminate natural alfalfa, among other severe environmental and economic harms.  We warned this administration and the industry repeatedly of the significant risk to farmers and the environment.  Tragically, neither listened, and this latest contamination is the result of that negligence.

"In order to sell more herbicides and patented seeds, corporations have threatened the livelihood of farmers, exporters, and businesses that rely on natural alfalfa."