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Farmers file class-action lawsuit against Riceland Foods Thursday, Jul 3, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Riceland Foods Inc. in Stuttgart subjected the state's rice farmers to an "ultrahazardous risk" when it experimented with genetically modified rice that contaminated the commercial supply, a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges. Arkansas' more than 4,000 rice farmers were adversely affected when the European Union began refusing Arkansas rice in 2006 after the genetically modified strain, Liberty Link, contaminated the state's exports, according to the lawsuit filed in Lonoke County Circuit Court. Lonoke County residents and farmers Roger Webb, Harold West and JoAnn West are listed as class representatives in the lawsuit against the farmer-owned cooperative and world's largest rice miller and marketer. "It just goes to show the degree of the breach of trust that has occurred," said Paul Byrd, managing counsel for the Arkansas office for law firm Hare Wynn Newell and Newton. "It (Riceland) was created for the aid and benefit of farmers." Riceland collaborated with Aventis Crop Science, which later became Bayer Crop Science, on the rice, engineered to resist Liberty herbicide. "Riceland Foods knew that that (European) market would not accept it, and they knew that there was a risk of contamination, but they still engaged in the collaboration," Byrd said, "obviously hoping that there would be customer acceptance by the time it ultimately was found that it was going to be contaminated." The genetically modified rice somehow got into research plots or foundation seed production fields and increased across the state's rice production belt, said Terry Walker, director of the plant industry division of the state Plant Board. Riceland Vice President Bill Reed declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the company had not yet been served papers. Riceland was alerted to the contamination in January 2006 when the genetically modified rice from Arkansas was detected in Europe. The company did not disclose the contamination publicly until August, when rice planted in April and May that year was being harvested. If the contamination had been made public earlier, farmers could have planted alternate varieties or different crops, or there could have been an industry-wide approach to segregating the rice, Byrd said. The Plant Board banned the two varieties of rice that were genetically modified in 2006, and those varieties are being purified and readied for an eventual return to Arkansas farmland, Walker said. So far, all the testing is coming back negative for the genetically modified rice, but the European Union still does not accept American rice. The board now tests all rice seed prior to planting, and so far, all the tests are negative for the genetically modified rice, Walker said. But that does not mean the tainted rice has been eradicated. "There might be a grain of seed stuck in a combine out there somewhere, and that seed could have fallen out and could have germinated," Walker said. In 2005, the EU purchased about 200,000 tons of American long-grain rice for about $800 million. Global supply concerns have caused prices of rice and many grains to rise recently, to the benefit of farmers. "What would the price have done had that customer (the EU) been a player at the table?" Byrd said. "That's an interesting question that will have to be answered." |
