LITTLE ROCK — More than four years after a genetically engineered variety of rice was discovered in the U.S. supply - spawning numerous lawsuits against Bayer Crop Science - the Arkansas Department of Correction has also filed a complaint against the Germany-based conglomerate.
The department, which plants several thousand acres of rice annually in Jefferson and Lincoln counties, filed a suit Nov. 15 in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
Like other plaintiffs, the department contends that the discovery of the Liberty Link strain in rice supplies caused prices for the grain to drop and hurt its ability to have its crop marketed in Europe and Japan.
There have been at least six rulings against Bayer in Arkansas cases, with more than $53 million - including $48 million by a Lonoke County jury in April - awarded to farmers in the state for damages. Bayer has appealed the decisions. Bayer also reached one settlement for $5.8 million.
About 7,000 plaintiffs also sued Bayer in multi-district litigation in federal court in St. Louis.
Arkansas is the country’s leading rice producer, accounting for about half of the U.S. output.
The lawsuit doesn’t specify the amount of compensation the department is seeking.
In August 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that traces of a genetically engineered rice had been found in the country’s commercial rice supply.
Bayer had partnered with Louisiana State University to test its genetically modified rice at a school-run facility in Crowley, La., in 1998. Though the USDA has said the rice variety posed no health or environmental risk, the rice had not been approved for human consumption at the time.
When the contamination was announced, Japan and the European Union immediately moved to restrict U.S. rice imports, leading to a drop in rice prices and exports.
The European Union in June lifted testing requirements on U.S. long-grain rice.
The state attorney general’s office didn’t file the lawsuit earlier because it wasn’t aware of the problem until early October, when it was contacted by the Department of Correction, said Aaron Sadler, spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
“We filed the suit after conducting an investigation,” Sadler said.
The Department of Correction didn’t pursue a lawsuit earlier because it was “studying if [a lawsuit] would be in the best interest of the [department] and Arkansas,” said Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the department.
“We didn’t want to jump headlong into something,” Tyler said.
In its lawsuit, the Arkansas Department of Correction said that it “experienced restricted demand and low prices” for its rice in 2006 and “the damage was long lasting.” The department was unable to sell its 2006 crop of long-grain rice at a good price because of the Bayer contamination, the lawsuit says.
The department “continues to suffer a lower price for its rice than it would have received absent the contamination,” the lawsuit says.
Bayer was negligent in allowing genetically engineered rice to get into the country’s general rice supply, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims Bayer concealed what it knew about the contamination of the country’s rice. It also alleges that Bayer’s actions were in violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Business, Pages 23 on 11/30/2010