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GMW: Bayer Blames Farmers, 'Act of God' for Rice Contamination

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GMW: Bayer Blames Farmers, 'Act of God' for Rice Contamination

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:26:27 GMT

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Firm Blames Farmers, 'Act of God' for Rice Contamination

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer

Washington Post, November 22 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101265.\

html

 

The company that created the experimental variety of genetically

engineered rice found this summer to have contaminated the U.S. rice

supply

contends that rice farmers and an " act of God " are to blame for the

inadvertent release of the unapproved crop.

 

Those are among the assertions by Bayer CropScience of Research

Triangle Park, N.C., in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by

hundreds

of farmers in Arkansas and Missouri

 

The 30-page response offers the first clue to how the company plans to

defend itself against the 15 class-action lawsuits filed by farmers,

who allege that they stand to lose millions of dollars because of the

contamination.

 

Lawyers for the farmers said they had expected the company to deny

responsibility, but were offended by its attempt to blame farmers. The

lawyers said their clients had no reason to suspect that the seeds they

were planting in recent years were contaminated by Bayer's unapproved

variety.

 

" The farmers are innocent victims, " said Don Downing, a principal at

Gray, Ritter and Graham PC, the St. Louis firm that filed the largest

suit, in U.S. District Court in eastern Missouri.

 

Denying any culpability, the Bayer response variously blames the escape

of its gene-altered variety of long-grain race, LL601, on " unavoidable

circumstances which could not have been prevented by anyone " ; " an act

of God " ; and farmers' " own negligence, carelessness, and/or comparative

fault. "

 

Asked how farmers were at fault, Bayer spokesman Greg Coffey said the

company does not comment on pending litigation.

 

Bayer conducted field tests of LL601 from 1999 to 2001 in Louisiana,

then dropped the project without seeking government approval to market

it. This year, LL601 was found to be widespread in U.S. long-grain rice,

prompting Europe to cut off imports and throwing the rice futures

market into turmoil.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating how the variety

escaped from test plots into farmers' fields, where it was quietly

amplified for years until its discovery. The seeds and plants of LL601

look

virtually identical to those of the popular conventional variety with

which they had become mixed, said Steve Linscombe, director of

Louisiana State University's rice research station in Crowley.

 

The day the contamination was announced in August, Bayer asked the

government to approve the variety. A decision is still pending.

Meanwhile,

lawsuits have been filed on behalf of about 300 rice farmers in the

South.

 

The company's response to the largest of those suits asserts that

Bayer's test plots were in full compliance with Agriculture Department

rules. Critics of U.S. biotech regulations have said that, if true, that

only proves the inadequacy of those rules and calls into question whether

the department can fairly investigate the problem.

 

" It is unfortunate that Bayer, rather than accept responsibility for

its actions, is instead trying to pin the blame on the American rice

farmers, the very people most detrimentally affected by Bayer's conduct

here, " said Adam Levitt, a Chicago lawyer who has filed five class-action

suits for rice farmers.

 

 

 

 

 

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to the GM Watch List.

http://www.gmwatch.org

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