Unapproved Genetically Modified Rice Leaks into the Food Supply
On 18 August 2006, Mike Johanns, US Secretary of Agriculture, announced that genetically modified (GM) rice that has not been approved for human consumption has leaked into the U.S. food supply. He said:
”The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have been notified by Bayer CropScience that the company has detected trace amounts of regulated genetically engineered rice in samples taken from commercial long grain rice.”
“Regulated” is a technical governmental term that means that a GM crop has not been approved to be eaten. Johanns added:
”In terms of the location of this sample and the information I’ve provided I can tell you very candidly, I didn’t ask where this sample came from. I know it’s long grain rice. I can’t tell you if that came from this state or that state.”
In actuality, it was a third party test which first detected the rice:
Riceland, a farmer-owned cooperative that markets rice produced by Southern farmers, issued a press release on August 18, saying it first discovered the contamination in January. Riceland conducted its own tests from several grain-storage locations and found: “A significant number tested positive for the Bayer trait. The positive results were geographically dispersed and random throughout the rice-growing area.”
Riceland notified Bayer of the contamination in May, but did not notify the public or the government.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) relies on corporate self-reporting on GM crops. Bayer did not tell the US government until 31 July. The USDA is not required to notify the public, so the department did not do so until a few weeks later, late in the day on a Friday. The next day, Japan suspended US long-grain rice imports. The following week, the European Union refused to allow imports unless they had been certified free of the contaminating rice. Subsequent news reports indicate that EU citizens, and likely the rest of us, have been unknowingly eating GM rice for months or even years. As The Independent of London said:
Britons have unwittingly been eating banned GM rice imported from the United States for months, if not years, food safety experts fear.
Imports of the rice were stopped by the European Commission (EC) on Thursday. But investigations in the US show that it has long been “wide-spread” in grain destined to be shipped overseas.
It was first discovered in January that the banned crop, which has never received safety clearance, was contaminating export stocks of long-grain rice. But it was not until nine days ago that the US government informed importing countries.
European governments are furious that the Bush administration delayed warning them. And the row threatens ministers’ plans for growing GM crops in Britain.
The unauthorised rice, codenamed LLRICE601, was developed by Bayer CropScience to tolerate weedkiller. It was tested on US farms between 1998 and 2001, but the company decided not to market it and never submitted it for official approval.
In January, it was found to have contaminated rice from Arkansas-based Riceland, the world’s largest miller and marketer, which is responsible for one-third of the entire US crop. […]
The Arkansas government suspects that the crisis began when pollen from the rice tested on US farms spread to contaminate conventional crops. This would mean that it has been present - and presumably been exported - at least since 2001, when the trials stopped.
Richard Bell, the state’s agriculture secretary, admits that the contamination is “widespread” and predicts it will show up again in this year’s crop when it is harvested.
Because Bayer withdrew its application to produce the rice commercially before safety tests were ever performed, the potential health risks to humans are unknown.
The price of US rice has dropped approximately 9% since news of the contamination broke. The US is the third-largest exporter of rice in the world, and long-grain rice accounts for approximately 80% of its rice exports.
On 28 and 29 August, attorneys representing various American rice farmers filed suit against Bayer CropScience, alleging that it failed to prevent its GM rice from contaminating the crop and seeking damages. More lawsuits are expected.
Meanwhile, on 22 August, Bayer filed for a permit to make the rice “nonregulated” (legal to consume), so that Bayer and the USDA can belatedly spin the contamination as an unfortunate but safe occurance (PDF of the application here).
