Saturday, September 30, 2006
GE Rice Threatens US Rice Industry
from Greenpeace:
International — Just weeks after we uncovered US rice on supermarket shelves in Europe contained illegal genetically engineered (GE) rice, the scandal keeps growing with more illegal GE rice being discovered. In the latest blow for the GE industry, the world's largest rice processing company has stopped importing US rice into Europe due to the threat of contamination.
Ebro Puleva, which controls 30 percent of the European rice market, has stopped importing US rice due to the presence of an illegal GE rice strain. The rice strain causing the contamination is called LL601 and has not been approved for human consumption anywhere in the world. The company responsible for the contamination is Germany's Bayer who ended field trials of LL601 in the US five years ago. However, the LL601 rice escaped the field trials and has now contaminated an unknown number of conventional rice fields across the US.
Greenpeace investigations recently found another illegal GE rice contamination outbreak. This time it is from China and is a variety of rice called Bt63. Like the US however, Bt63 rice also escaped field trials and has now been found in processed rice imports into Europe. The extent of both GE contaminations is still unknown with new discoveries of contaminated rice occurring almost daily across Europe.
The move by Ebro Puleva to stop importing US rice follows a summer of scandals, with illegal GE contamination found in rice products all over Europe as well as in Japan. As a result of Bayer's recklessness, the global food industry is facing massive costs associated with this contamination, including testing costs, product recalls, brand damage, import bans and cancelled imports and contracts.
At least three multi-million dollar class action lawsuits have been filed by US rice farmers against Bayer CropScience already, as farmers struggle to protect their livelihoods from GE contamination. To compound Bayer's legal problems, they may soon be in the legal sights of Ebro Puleva too. The world's largest rice company has indicated that they expect to bring legal actions against Bayer as well.
"By imposing a blanket ban on rice imports from the US, Ebro Puleva has acknowledged how real and costly the risk of GE contamination is," said Jeremy Tager, GE campaigner from Greenpeace International. "With GE now as uneconomic as it is unacceptable, governments in countries that grow or import GE must stop placing farmers, consumers, the environment and industry at such high risk."
The illegal GE rice scandal continues to rage just as the WTO has finally published a ruling on a case brought against the EU by the US, Canada and Argentina over Europe imposing restrictions on the importing of GE food. At its heart, the dispute is about whether trade laws trump environmental laws - and surprise, surprise, to the WTO it is trade law rules."
The WTO is clearly unqualified to deal with complex scientific and environmental issues, and yet, when there is a conflict between trade and environmental considerations, it is the WTO that gets to decide which rules rule; it's like putting the fox in charge of the chickens," said Daniel Mittler, Trade Policy Advisor at Greenpeace International.
The latest GE contamination scandal shows that once GE organisms are released into the environment, the consequences for consumers, farmers and traders are enormous. The WTO has no place determining what people should eat and illegal GE rice has no place on the dinner tables of consumers anywhere in the world.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/banned-290906#
International — Just weeks after we uncovered US rice on supermarket shelves in Europe contained illegal genetically engineered (GE) rice, the scandal keeps growing with more illegal GE rice being discovered. In the latest blow for the GE industry, the world's largest rice processing company has stopped importing US rice into Europe due to the threat of contamination.
Ebro Puleva, which controls 30 percent of the European rice market, has stopped importing US rice due to the presence of an illegal GE rice strain. The rice strain causing the contamination is called LL601 and has not been approved for human consumption anywhere in the world. The company responsible for the contamination is Germany's Bayer who ended field trials of LL601 in the US five years ago. However, the LL601 rice escaped the field trials and has now contaminated an unknown number of conventional rice fields across the US.
Greenpeace investigations recently found another illegal GE rice contamination outbreak. This time it is from China and is a variety of rice called Bt63. Like the US however, Bt63 rice also escaped field trials and has now been found in processed rice imports into Europe. The extent of both GE contaminations is still unknown with new discoveries of contaminated rice occurring almost daily across Europe.
The move by Ebro Puleva to stop importing US rice follows a summer of scandals, with illegal GE contamination found in rice products all over Europe as well as in Japan. As a result of Bayer's recklessness, the global food industry is facing massive costs associated with this contamination, including testing costs, product recalls, brand damage, import bans and cancelled imports and contracts.
At least three multi-million dollar class action lawsuits have been filed by US rice farmers against Bayer CropScience already, as farmers struggle to protect their livelihoods from GE contamination. To compound Bayer's legal problems, they may soon be in the legal sights of Ebro Puleva too. The world's largest rice company has indicated that they expect to bring legal actions against Bayer as well.
"By imposing a blanket ban on rice imports from the US, Ebro Puleva has acknowledged how real and costly the risk of GE contamination is," said Jeremy Tager, GE campaigner from Greenpeace International. "With GE now as uneconomic as it is unacceptable, governments in countries that grow or import GE must stop placing farmers, consumers, the environment and industry at such high risk."
The illegal GE rice scandal continues to rage just as the WTO has finally published a ruling on a case brought against the EU by the US, Canada and Argentina over Europe imposing restrictions on the importing of GE food. At its heart, the dispute is about whether trade laws trump environmental laws - and surprise, surprise, to the WTO it is trade law rules."
The WTO is clearly unqualified to deal with complex scientific and environmental issues, and yet, when there is a conflict between trade and environmental considerations, it is the WTO that gets to decide which rules rule; it's like putting the fox in charge of the chickens," said Daniel Mittler, Trade Policy Advisor at Greenpeace International.
The latest GE contamination scandal shows that once GE organisms are released into the environment, the consequences for consumers, farmers and traders are enormous. The WTO has no place determining what people should eat and illegal GE rice has no place on the dinner tables of consumers anywhere in the world.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/banned-290906#
# posted by ellenr @ 3:27 PM 
