Rice Purge

On August 18, 2006, the U. S. Department of Agriculture announced that traces of an unapproved, genetically engineered rice had been discovered in U. S. long-grain rice supplies.  Keith Glover, president and chief executive officer of Producers Rice Mill Inc. in Stuttgart, was quoted as saying, “I wish that day would never have happened.  It really created a lot of hardship for a lot of people: farmers, mills, exporters, seed dealers... everybody in the industry was impacted.”  The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration said the genetically engineered rice - one of Bayer CropScience’s LibertyLink varieties - posed no health, food safety or environmental risks.  But many foreign countries, which buy about half of each year’s U. S. rice crop, shun genetically engineered foods.  As a result, sales in nearly half of all U. S. rice export markets were negatively affected.  Exports to the 27 member nations of the European Union halted almost completely.  The fallout from the problem was particularly acute in Arkansas where the state’s farmers produce about half of all U. S. rice.  In 2006, Arkansas’ rice harvest was worth $892 million, making it the state’s single most valuable crop.

Since then, the U.S. rice industry has been working to purge LibertyLink traits from the country’s long-grain rice supply.  Great strides have been made, said Ray Vester, a Stuttgart rice farmer who is chairman of the USA Rice Federation’s environmental regulatory subcommittee.  Arkansas took the lead by banning the 2007 planting of Cheniere and Clearfield 131 seed, which both tested positive for the “adventitious presence” or unintentional commingling of trace amounts of the protein that makes LibertyLink rice varieties resistant to the herbicide Liberty, also known as glufosinate.  Farmers and millers then were urged to thoroughly clean their equipment before starting the 2007 harvest.

Meanwhile, a German food producer, Rickmers Reismuehle, based in Bremen, filed separate federal complaints against Riceland Foods cooperative and Producers Rice Mill.  Rickmers alleged the Arkansas millers breached contracts with the food company by selling rice that did not meet the terms of a 2003 European Union ban on the importation and sale of genetically modified foods.  The lawsuits seek judgment for damages incurred by Rickmers in purchasing, using, and recalling the rice and the food products made with it.  (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 8/18/08 & AP, 8/23/07).