US Rice contaminated with GM seed- Japan and EU refuse to import US Crop

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28 Aug 2006, Reuters

US rice farmers sue Bayer CropScience over GM rice

LOS ANGELES, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Rice farmers in Arkansas, Missouri,

Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California have sued Bayer CropScience,

alleging

its genetically modified rice has contaminated the crop, attorneys for the

farmers said on Monday.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern

District of Arkansas in Little Rock, law firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll

said in a statement.

The farmers alleged that the unit of Germany's Bayer AG <BAYG.DE> failed to

prevent its genetically modified rice, which has not been approved for human

consumption, from entering the food chain.

As a result, they said, Japan and the European Union have placed strict

limits on U.S. rice imports and U.S. rice prices have dropped dramatically.

A Bayer representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

U.S. agriculture and food safety authorities learned on July 31 that Bayer's

unapproved rice had been found in commercial bins in Arkansas and Missouri.

While the United States is a small rice grower, it is one of the world's

largest exporters, sending half of its crop to foreign buyers.

The genetically engineered long grain rice has a protein known as Liberty

Link, which allows the crop to withstand applications of an herbicide used to

kill weeds.

The European Commission said on Wednesday the EU would require U.S. long

grain rice imports to be certified as free from the unauthorized strain. The

commission said validated tests must be done by an accredited laboratory and be

accompanied by a certificate.

Japan, the largest importer of U.S. rice, suspended imports of U.S.

long-grain rice a week ago.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration have

said there are no public health or environmental risks associated with the

genetically engineered rice.

The United States is expected to produce a rice crop valued at $1.88 billion

in 2006. U.S. rice growers are responsible for about 12 percent of world

rice trade. Three-fourths of the crop is long grain, grown almost entirely in

the lower Mississippi Valley. California, the No. 2 rice state, grows short

grain rice.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 27, 2006

Biotech foods: A cat that won't stay bagged

Another unapproved product finds its way into marketplace.

In a global marketplace that dislikes genetically modified (GM) foods,

America's agricultural exports must rely on trust above all -- trust that GM

varieties are safe to eat, preferable to grow and strictly regulated.

On the first point, the scientific support is pretty strong. On the second,

which is about philosophy as much as science, it looks to be an uphill fight.

And on the third, well. . . can't we go back to talking about safety?

That seems to be the approach at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose

response to the latest regulatory breakdown -- inexplicable mixing of biotech

rice into regular stocks -- can only make matters worse, trustwise, with

skeptical export customers.

Friday before last, Secretary Mike Johanns announced that Bayer CropScience

had found " trace amounts " of its engineered long-grain variety in U.S. bins

holding rice from the 2005 crop. Although this GM rice was " regulated " --

fedspeak meaning " unapproved for market release " -- Johanns stressed that both

his department and the Food and Drug Administration had found it to pose no

threat to human or environmental health.

The announcement didn't mention that Bayer had notified USDA of its

discovery on July 31, three workweeks earlier. Johanns acknowledged the timing

at a

press conference, explaining that USDA had withheld the information while

trying to validate a test that producers, shippers and customers could use to

detect the Bayer rice, an herbicide-resistant variety ref= " hknown as Liberty

Link 601. Oh, and they were reviewing safety data, too -- not a time-consuming

task, since the basis for declaring the 601 variety safe is only that its

special protein is the same inserted into two earlier Bayer strains that were

" deregulated " years ago.

Anyway, the testing is all about protecting sales, not safety. It was a sure

bet that Japan and the EU countries would ban raw rice or processed foods

contaminated, in their view, with the Bayer strain. Saving this billion-dollar

export market required a way to certify shipments as GM-free.

Alas, three workweeks wasn't enough time for USDA to prepare answers to such

questions as how the Bayer rice, field-tested between 1998 and 2001, could

turn up in the 2005 harvest. Or how many rice bins, in how many states,

contained the modified strain. Or whether any of the GM rice had reached U.S.

supermarket shelves.

Some of this information has surfaced subsequently. According to Riceland

Foods, the nation's largest rice marketer, the 601 strain was detected " across

the rice belt " in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas.

Moreover, Riceland also said it had been investigating the matter since

January,

when a customer discovered GM rice in an export shipment. How it got there

remains a mystery, but a solution has emerged: Bayer will now seek retroactive

USDA approval to sell Liberty Link 601.

That may be of some help to American rice producers, who have seen prices

plummet since Johanns' announcement. But it won't do much to boost their

credibility, or the USDA's, with foreign customers. That will require a

regulatory

system that can be trusted to do what it claims -- under leadership that

treats its customers' concerns with respect and candor, and discloses screwups

without rationalization and delay.

Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany)

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Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940

Advisory Board

Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer, Krefeld,

Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the Bundestag, Burgwald

Wolfram Esche, attorney, Cologne

Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist, Bremen

Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the Bundestag, Berlin

Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist, Neubeuern

Dorothee Sölle, theologian, Hamburg (died 2003)

Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian, Berlin

Dr. Abczynski, pediatrician, Dormagen