By Nancy Cole
One year ago, 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.
?I wish that day would never have happened,? said Keith Glover,
president and chief executive officer of Producers Rice Mill Inc. in
Stuttgart. ?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.

The U. S. rice industry has been working to purge LibertyLink traits
from the country?s long-grain rice supply and restore the grain?s
international competitiveness and marketability. 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 two rice
varieties, Vester said. Cheniere and Clearfield 131 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.

Whether those efforts have been successful in Arkansas will become
apparent later this month, when the state?s rice harvest begins, Vester
said.

He and many others are confident that this year?s crop is ?clean.?

?I really feel good about what we have in the field right now,? said
State Plant Board Director Darryl Little. ?My biggest fear - and I suspect
that of everyone in the industry - would be carryover of Cheniere and
Clearfield 131 that was grown last year that might be in on-farm storage
somewhere? and get mixed with the new crop, Little said.

Rice miller Glover echoes that concern.

?You?re just nervous about that one kernel that might happen to show
up? in a shipment to Europe, he said. ?If they just happen to probe and hit
that one kernel, that?s all it takes to ban the whole shipment and have to
ship it back.?

For that reason, the U. S. rice industry is lobbying the EU to agree
to ?origin testing,? Glover said, so that U. S. exporters can be confident
their rice will be accepted for delivery before it is shipped.
Alternatively, the EU?s establishment of a minimum tolerance for the
adventitious presence of genetically engineered traits could help to restart
U. S. rice exports, he said.

USDA also could assist the rice industry by completing and releasing
its long-awaited investigation into the LibertyLink case, Glover said,
explaining ?what happened, how it happened and what?s being done to correct
the problem.?

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has repeatedly promised
to ?determine the circumstances surrounding the release [of regulated
material into supplies of commercial long-grain rice ] and whether any USDA
regulations were violated.? But APHIS spokesman Karen Eggert said Thursday
?that investigation is not yet complete, so we haven?t issued any final
findings.?

Not surprisingly, the genetically engineered rice problem has spawned
hundreds of lawsuits during the past year. Most of those cases have been
brought by farmers who are suing Bayer CropScience. Some cases, however,
have been brought by rice buyers and seed dealers, and several cases also
name rice mills as defendants.

In December, all such rice litigation ? which now numbers 184 cases ?
was consolidated in U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Missouri in St. Louis. Judge Catherine Perry was assigned to handle all
pretrial matters such as discovery, which began last month.

Most of the rice-farmer plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for
their complaints, said Scott Poynter, a Little Rock attorney who serves on
the plaintiffs? executive committee. A hearing on that issue is scheduled
for May 1, 2008.

?I think it?s more than likely, if [Perry ] does certify the class,
that the class case would be tried with her,? Poynter said. ?Individual
cases that aren?t part of the class, and any individual case where the
plaintiff doesn?t fall within the class definition will go back to their
original venue and court.?

Based upon the current scheduling orders, none of the rice trials will
begin before 2009.



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