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COUNTY FARMERS SUE OVER GENETICALLY MODIFIED RICE

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, August 8, 2008 10:08 AM CDT

Four Jefferson County residents and two farms have filed a lawsuit against several chemical companies and Riceland Foods, Inc., alleging they lost money because of genetically modified rice.

Clay and Brenda Jeter, W.S. Jeter Sr., and Alan Erstine, and Jetco Farms and J&E Farms filed the lawsuit Thursday morning in Jefferson County Circuit Court against Bayer AG and a number of its subsidiaries, and Riceland Foods Inc., of Stuttgart, seeking damages for lost of income, damage to their property and equipment, including storage and transportation facilities.

The lawsuit was one of several filed Thursday by attorneys from Goldman, Pennebaker & Phipps of San Antonio and Little Rock attorney Chuck Banks in rice-growing counties in eastern and southeastern Arkansas, including Jefferson. Similar suits have also been filed in Texas and Mississippi.

The lawsuit alleges Bayer, through its companies, developed, planted and tested genetically modified rice, including a type known as Liberty Link Rice 601 (LL601), with the idea the genetically modified rice would help farmers battle problems with weeds that negatively affected their profit margins.

The lawsuit claims that from 1996 to 2001, Bayer planted and tested LL601 and other modified rice varieties, then in 2001 decided not to market LL601 because of concerns that the genetically modified rice would not be accepted by consumers in the United States and other countries.

Because rice is a cross pollinating plant, the lawsuit alleged that LL601 contaminated non-genetically modified rice, and Bayer and Riceland withheld information about the contamination until after the rice planting season in the spring of 2006.

After the information was made public in August 2006, Japan suspended imports of long-grain rice (the type planted in Arkansas) until shipments could be certified as non-genetically modified, and the European Union took the same action later in August. Other rice exporting countries such as Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iraq also banned the rice.

Last year, the lawsuit claimed that two varieties of rice popular with Arkansas farmers were found to have a genetically modified LL601 link, and “plaintiffs, like most Arkansas farmers, were unable to find enough unaffected seed and were unable to plant rice on all their available land.

“The rice that was planted was less profitable because of reduced yields and added expense in controlling weeds,” the lawsuit claimed.

The case was assigned to 2nd Division Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt Jr.

Riceland Foods has a long established policy of not commenting on lawsuits filed against the cooperative. Riceland officials had not been served with a copy of the complaint as of Thursday.

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