The Search for Monsanto's Rogue GMO Wheat

Drive across America’s farm country—across the vast plains of Kansas, across the prairies of North Dakota, and then out onto the parched, treeless expanse of the inland Northwest—and the waves of grain can seem endless. About 60 million acres of the U.S. are planted in wheat. That’s an area larger than Utah, and it’s the core of an $18 billion industry that’s as old as the nation—older, in fact. The settlers at Jamestown cultivated wheat. George Washington was a major wheat grower as were tens of thousands of small-time 19th century dreamers who pushed their way west over the Appalachian Mountains to plant wheat in the green valleys of Ohio, Illinois, and later Minnesota.

In the American mind, wheat is linked to decency and hard work. Just look at the iconic 1938 painting by Thomas Hart Benton, Cradling Wheat. Here are five farmers coming together in a tawny field at harvest, scything the grain and bundling it into tidy sheaves. The farmers’ faces are hidden by their floppy straw hats; the heave of their backs is musical, in sync with the heave of the hills rolling behind them. These people are humble, good.