Costly contamination: $1.285 billion (US) in damages caused by genetically-engineered rice

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Risky Business

Risky Business is a 32-page report written by Dr. E. Neal Blue that examines the case of a brand of experimental GE rice, LL601, by Bayer CropScience that contaminated production and exports from the United States. The rice was designed to be used with Bayer's herbicide, Liberty, but was discovered to have contaminated conventional long grain rice supplies five years after the field trials for this experimental variety had ended.

The impacts of this incident were significant:

• Thousands of American farmers, wholesalers and retailers suffered the effects of this contamination, as direct export losses totalled $254 million (US).
• The contamination was confirmed in least 30 countries; about 63 per cent of exports of American rice were affected by the contamination as trade restrictions were imposed in six of the top ten US export markets.
• There are presently hundreds of legal cases against Bayer for damages. This number could climb into the thousands.
• There was a 3.37 percent reduction in acreage cultivated with rice in 2007 in the United States.
• Globally, the impact is estimated to have cost $1.285 billion (US) in damages.

This is not the first such incident of a contamination in the United States. In 2000-2001, an illegal, genetically engineered type of corn, known as StarLink, from the French multinational Aventis, contaminated the food chain and cost approximately one billion dollars.

Greenpeace says these incidents demonstrate that coexistence is impossible between GE and conventional crop varieties.

Hiding illegal GE rice contamination in Canada

In spite of contamination of American rice imports being discovered in 30 countries around the world, Canada has so far detected nothing, at least not officially. This is neither due to a miracle of luck, nor due to the efficiency of Canada's food security system. It is because of a deliberate choice by Canadian authorities to set a threshold for detection so high that rice importers almost need to put blinking lights on their contaminated rice to be noticed. At 0.5 percent, the Canadian threshold is 50 times higher than the limit set by countries such as India or even that recommended by Bayer CropScience itself.

While legal cases against Bayer multiply around the world, in Canada it's not justice that is blind, but the regulatory authorities. Remember that Canada still has not implemented the 58 recommendation of the Royal Society of Canada's report on biotechnology, still has no labelling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients and refuses to implement strict liability for companies responsible for cases of contamination by genetically engineered organisms.

Josh Brandon,

Agriculture Campaigner