'Act of God' blamed for rice contamination

WASHINGTON -- The Research Triangle Park company that created the experimental variety of genetically engineered rice found to have contaminated the U.S. rice supply this summer contends that rice farmers and an "act of God" are to blame for the inadvertent release of the unapproved crop.

Those are among the assertions by Bayer CropScience in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by hundreds of farmers in Missouri and Arkansas.

The response offers the first clue to how the company plans to defend itself against the 15 class action lawsuits filed by farmers, who allege they stand to lose millions of dollars because of the contamination.

Attorneys for the farmers said they had expected the company to deny responsibility, but were offended by its attempt to blame farmers, who they say had no reason to suspect that the seeds they were planting in recent years were contaminated with Bayer's unapproved variety.

"The farmers are innocent victims," said Don Downing, a principal at Gray, Ritter & Graham, the St. Louis firm that filed the largest suit, in U.S. district court in eastern Missouri.

Denying any culpability, the Bayer response variously blames the escape of a gene-altered variety of long grain race, "LL601," on "unavoidable circumstances which could not have been prevented by anyone"; "an act of God"; and farmers' "own negligence, carelessness, and/or comparative fault."

Asked how farmers were at fault, Bayer spokesman Greg Coffey said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Bayer conducted field tests of LLRICE601 from 1999 to 2001 in Louisiana, then dropped the project without seeking government approval to market it. This year Bayer's variety was found to be widespread in U.S. rice, prompting Europe to cut off imports and throwing the rice futures market into turmoil.

The Agriculture Department is investigating how the variety escaped into farmers' fields, where it was quietly amplified for years until its discovery. The seeds and plants of LL601 look virtually identical to the popular conventional variety with which they had become mixed, said Steve Linscombe, director of Louisiana State University's rice research station in Crowley.

The day the contamination was announced in August, Bayer asked the government to approve the variety. A decision is still pending. Meanwhile, lawsuits on behalf of about 300 Southern rice farmers have been filed.

The company's response to the largest of those suits asserts that Bayer's test plots were in full compliance with Agriculture Department rules. Critics of U.S. biotech regulations have said that claim may be true, but proves only the inadequacy of those rules and calls into question whether the Agriculture Department can fairly investigate the problem.