Long Grain Rice Suits Settled

Bayer CropScience will pay up to $750 million to U.S. rice farmers to resolve claims that the company's experimental LibertyLink rice contaminated crops, making them unfit for export. The agreement ends several lawsuits representing more than 11,000 long grain rice farmers in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

The LibertyLink rice traits were originally developed by AgrEvo, which was bought by Aventis CropScience. Bayer acquired Aventis CropScience in 2001. The rice was genetically modified to be tolerant to glufosinate, the active ingredient in Liberty herbicide. Tests of the rice were conducted at Louisiana State University.

In 2006, Bayer CropScience alerted USDA that LibertyLink rice had contaminated the U.S. rice supply. At the time, there were no genetically modified rice varieties being grown commercially in the U.S. In response to the contamination, Japan and Russia banned imports of long grain rice from the U.S., while Mexico and the European Union required that U.S.-grown rice be tested and proven free of genetically-modified traits.

Bayer agreed to the settlement after losing several cases brought by rice farmers. "Although Bayer CropScience believes it acted responsibly in the handling of its biotech rice," the firm said in a statement, "the company considers it important to resolve the litigation so that it can move forward focused on its fundamental mission of providing innovative solutions to modern agriculture."

Philipp Mimkes of the German activist group Coalition Against Bayer Dangers cautioned the European Union against approving Liberty Link imports. "The incident in the U.S. shows that risks linked with genetically modified crops cannot be controlled in the long term," he said.

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