[www.npr.org]

"A farmer in Oregon has found some genetically engineered wheat growing on his land. It's an unwelcome surprise, because this type of wheat has never been approved for commercial planting.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's , trying to find out how this wheat got there. The USDA says there's no risk to public health, but wheat are worried about how their customers in Asia and Europe will react.

In fact, worry about export markets is the main reason why genetically engineered wheat isn't on the market in the first place.

The biotech company Monsanto did create varieties of wheat that tolerate the weedkiller glyphosate, or Roundup — just as it created "Roundup Ready" corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. It also carried out field trials of this wheat in 16 different states.

But the country's wheat growers told the company that they did not want it.

"We are not in favor of commercializing any biotech trait unless it's gone through regulatory approvals in the U.S. and in other countries," says Steve Mercer, vice president of communications for . Many countries, including some that import wheat from the U.S., are quite hostile to genetically engineered crops."