Press Release, Dec 16, 2009
Coalition against Bayer Dangers (Germany)
GM Rice: BAYER ordered to pay damages
2 Million US$ in compensation / “No EU import approval!“
Bayer CropScience must pay about $2 million for losses sustained by two US farmers when a genetically manipulated variety of rice the company was testing cross-bred with their crops. The verdict of the federal court in St. Louis is seen as a test run for up to 3000 cases of rice farmers having suffered damages in the US states of Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi. If the compensatory awards in these bellwether cases are any indication, Bayer faces "certainly hundreds of millions" of dollars in liability for rice crop contamination, plaintiffs lawyer Adam Levitt says.
Philipp Mimkes of the Coalition against Bayer Dangers adds: “We welcome the verdict and call on BAYER to immediately compensate all the farmers who suffered damages. In addition to that we call on the European Union to refuse authorisation for import of Liberty Link Rice. The EU must not ignore the ecological and social risks of GM rice in the countries which might potentially grow it.” Moreover, Mimkes challenges the German government to prevent a dilution of EU regulations on the contamination of food with GMOs. This was hinted at in the recently published coalition treaty.
“This is a huge victory for every farmer in America who was harmed by Bayer's LibertyLink Rice contamination,“ said Johnny Hunter, one of the two plaintiffs. “I really do hope that this verdict will force Bayer to stop being reckless with its experimental programs,” Hunter continues. The jury described the company’s safety measures as “negligent” and upheld almost completely the demands made by Hunter. The next trials will take place in January.
In 2006 genetically modified long grain rice, which is resistant against the highly dangerous herbicide glyphosinate (Liberty Link), appeared in supermarkets worldwide, despite the fact that at that time this strain had not been approved anywhere. This led the EU and Japan to stop rice imports from North America. According to a Greenpeace study the damages sustained by the affected farmers amounted to 1.2 billion US$. Bayer and Louisiana State University had been testing the rice from 2002 on. The variety eventually contaminated more than 30 percent of U.S. ricelands, said Don Downing, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
BAYER already applied in 2003 to import rice of the strain Liberty Link 62 into the EU. The application was rejected several times when voted on in the EU council of ministers, but has so far not been withdrawn. Because of the risks of GMO rice for the environment, consumers and farmers, the Coalition against Bayer Dangers introduced countermotions to the BAYER annual shareholder meeting on several occasions. The case of the aggrieved US farmers once again shows that the cultivation of GMO rice unavoidably leads to contamination and the displacement of traditional rice strains. In the case of large scale cultivation this would result in a greater occurrence of pests and a greater use of dangerous pesticides.
Dec 05, 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
$2 million verdict against Bayer CropScience
Bayer CropScience LP must pay about $2 million for losses sustained by two Missouri farmers when an experimental variety of rice the company was testing cross-bred with their crops, a federal jury ruled.
Today's verdict in St. Louis came in the first trial in what is intended to be a series of test cases against the unit of Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer AG. The jury of four men and five women began deliberating on Dec. 2, about a month after it began hearing claims brought by Kenneth Bell and Johnny Hunter.
"This is a huge victory, not only for Kenny and me, but for every farmer in America who was harmed by Bayer's LibertyLink rice contamination," Hunter said in a statement. The verdict gave the company "the wake-up call they deserved."
Farmers from Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have filed more than 1,000 similar cases against Bayer since the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in August 2006 that trace amounts of the genetically modified LibertyLink rice were found in U.S. long-grain rice stocks.
Bayer and Louisiana State University had been testing the rice, which was bred to be resistant to Bayer's Liberty-brand herbicide, at a school-run facility in Crowley, Louisiana. The variety eventually "contaminated" more than 30 percent of U.S. ricelands, said Don Downing, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, at the start of the trial.
The company denied the testing program had been negligently managed.
The jury awarded only compensatory damages and rejected the farmers' request for a punitive judgment. Grant Davis, one of the farmer's lawyers, had told jurors an $80 million punitive award was "not too much to send a message."
'Not Careful'
In a post-verdict statement, the company said it was "pleased" with the jury's rejection of the farmers' request for a punitive award.
"Bayer CropScience is disappointed in the previous award of compensatory damages in the trial and will be studying that decision in detail and considering its options," it said.
In closing arguments, Downing told the jury that Bayer CropScience officials "were not careful."
"If you're trying to be careful, you don't go near where other rice is," Downing said.
Within four days of the 2006 USDA announcement, rice futures plunged, costing U.S. growers about $150 million, according to a consolidated complaint filed by the farmers. Exports fell as the European Union, Japan, Russia and other overseas markets slowed purchases of U.S.-grown long-grain rice for testing or stopped importing it, the growers said.
$1.96 Million
The jury awarded Bell about $1.96 million and Hunter $53,336. Bayer's negligence cost Bell more than $2.2 million, Downing said during the trial. Hunter quit rice farming and lost about $50,000 because of the contamination, Downing said.
Lead defense lawyer Mark Ferguson told jurors that the farmers built their case "on half-truths and creating confusion." The trace amounts of the modified rice posed no safety risk, the company said.
"This jury can send a message that you are not going to be able to contaminate our food," Downing said of Bayer during the punitive damages portion of the trial.
Ferguson countered that the burden of proof for making such an award was greater than that used by the jury to determine his client's negligence.
"The scales have to tip a lot more than they do in this case," he said.
Bayer Lax
Juror Melissa McConnell, 30, of Maryland Heights, in an interview after the trial, said she and her colleagues found that Bayer had been lax in its handling of the experimental seed.
She also explained why she and the eight other members of the panel rejected the farmers' request for a punitive award.
"In our instructions it said that it had to be proven that Bayer knew what would happen if it got out, and we had to find that they had done it on purpose," McConnell said. "Sure, Bayer knew what would happen, but it wasn't proven to us that they did this on purpose. Both points weren't proven."
While the USDA later approved Bayer CropScience's biotech rice to be grown and sold for human consumption, it hasn't been commercially marketed.
The USDA never determined how the LibertyLink rice had entered the nation's long-grain rice supply, Bayer CropScience's statement said.
"I really do hope that this verdict will force Bayer to stop being reckless with its experimental programs," Hunter said.
The next test, or bellwether trial, involving farmers from Arkansas and Mississippi, is scheduled to start on Jan. 11 in St. Louis. The case is In Re Genetically Modified Rice Litigation, 06-md-01811, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis).
more information on Bayer GM Rice:
=> GM Rice contamination
=> Letter to the European Food Safety Authority
=> Reject Bayer's application to import genetically modified rice into the EU
=> BAYER URGED TO QUIT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD