Cape lawyer sues biotech firm over rice

Southeast Missouri's rice farmers face falling prices because a biotechnology company negligently allowed a strain of genetically modified rice to escape research fields, a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday charges.

The lawsuit, filed by Cape Girardeau attorney Michael Ponder on behalf of three Southeast Missouri rice farmers, seeks unspecified damages against Bayer Cropscience USA, developer of the modified rice.

The rice is altered to resist herbicides. Discovery of the rice in shipments from Riceland Foods Inc. processing plants in Missouri and Arkansas was confirmed in July and announced in late August.

Field tests of the rice were conducted from 1998 to 2001 and no one is sure how the rice strain, which has not been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, got into regular supplies, Ponder said.

"There may have been cross-pollination from test plots that has since spread," Ponder said. "I think that is a distinct possibility."

As a result of the discovery, Japan has suspended imports of U.S. long-grain rice and the European Union is requiring expensive tests of the grain before allowing the rice to be shipped.

Before the discovery of the genetically altered rice was announced, commodities investors were paying about $10.20 per hundredweight for November rice contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price settled Wednesday at $8.97 per hundredweight for November deliveries.

Missouri is expected to produce about 1.5 billion pounds of rice this year, making the price decline, if sustained, a major blow to farmers. Missouri rice production is concentrated in six Southeast Missouri counties -- Butler, Stoddard, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin and Ripley. Small acreages are grown in Cape Girardeau, Scott, Bollinger and Mississippi counties.

The genetically modified rice was grown in test plots at Louisiana State University, a statement from the university said. Bayer Cropscience USA spokesman Greg Coffey declined to say if the strain was grown elsewhere.

"We are cooperating closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in connect with the biotechnology traces" found at Riceland, Coffey said. "The USDA and the FDA have confirmed that this rice poses no human health or food safety concern."

Coffey declined to comment further on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by Ponder is at least the fourth such lawsuit seeking compensation for the falling prices. Ponder said that if the farmers prevail, Missouri law calls for Bayer to pay double the farmers' loses.

"Bayer had news of this problem as far back as January," Ponder said. "They didn't do anything prior to the crop year. There was no testing of seed for this year's crop."

Genetically modified crops are a touchy issue for farmers. European and some Asian markets are hostile to genetically altered crops. And some American buyers are hesitant to buy crops grown near genetically modified varieties.

In April 2005, Ventria Bioscience backed away from a plan to grow rice modified to produce a pharmaceutical protein on a farm near Chaffee after Anheuser-Busch, one of the nation's largest rice consumers, threatened to boycott all Missouri rice.

The price plunge of the past two weeks could end up spoiling what would have been an otherwise strong year for rice growers, said David Coia, a spokesman for the USA Rice Federation. Supplies are tight and prices were rising, he said.

"It was looking like a very good year for rice," he said. "I don't think anyone can say with any authority what the damage is or will be."

Coia added that "a lot of attorneys are out there working to frighten a lot of people to get them to sign up for lawsuits. I am not sure that is an appropriate action at this time."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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