The West Virginia Attorney General is investigating whether Monsanto’s promotion of Roundup Ready II soybeans involves deceptive claims, according to The State Journal of Charleston, West Virginia.

Roundup Ready crops are resistant to the herbicide Roundup, which killed most plants, until the development of herbicide tolerant crops and the emergence of weed resistance.

Quoting from a June 29 article, “McGraw said his office is concerned West Virginia farmers are paying higher prices for the Generation 2 trait when the yields do not live up to Monsanto’s claims that the new trait will yield 7 to 11 percent more yield than Monsanto’s original Roundup Ready trait.”

McGraw cited research at Iowa State University, Pennsylvania State University and Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies, which conducts third party trials. Monsanto counters that Roundup Ready 2 yielded 7 percent more than Roundup Ready I soybeans sold by competitors, based on 40,000 comparisons from 2007 and 2009.

Roundup Ready II is critical to Monsanto’s dominant market position. Ninety percent of US soybeans include Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready traits. But Roundup Ready I goes off patent in 2014, so the company is pursuing new patents to extend its dominance.

For more information, contact Chuck Hassebrook, chuckh@cfra. org or 402.687.2103 x 1018.