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SW: →The rise of the superweeds: internal link
risk of creating a superweed is truly an insignificant
one" said Thomas Nickson, an ecological technology coordinator
for Monsanto, in a 1998 Washington Post article [http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/sciFearGe.htm]. Monsanto's former CEO, Robert Shapiro, also in 1998, stated in an interview, "If a herbicide-resistant strain were to out-cross... the likelihood of that happening is remote, though it can happen under forced circumstances it is rather remote in nature" [http://worldforum98.percepticon.com/technology/article_shapiro.html]. That assertion though is quite deceptive as an Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage demonstration risk assessment quiz demonstrates. [http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/biotechnology/quiz/maths.html] Even with an very low ''initial'' outcrossing rate ''but also considering the number of hectares planted'', in just two years time the amount of viable HT hybrid seeds and thus plants could number in the millions. They would, of course, continue to mushroom after that. See also [[Monsanto, Genetic Pollution and Monopolism]].
Regarding the need for more study of this Paul E. Arriola, Associate Professor of Biology at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois said in a personal correspondence "Scientists expressing concern about negative consequences for wide scale GM release have recommended for years that GM producing companies make available probes that could be used for long-term monitoring, but the call has fallen on deaf ears in both industry and the federal government". Providing appropriate genetic probes would, he says "violate company policy" regarding Monsanto's "confidential business information" and thus "it is not likely to happen".