Rice NGO fears GM rice contained in rice imports from US

September 4, 2006

Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) warned the public of possible contamination of genetically modified rice in the shipment of imported rice from the US this month.

R1 issued this warning in the light of the recent announcement by the US Department of Agriculture that they found unapproved, genetically engineered rice known as LLRICE601 contaminating the commercial long-grain rice supplies.

The group also called on the Department of Agriculture to conduct the mandatory testing of PL 480 rice in a letter sent to Secretary Domingo Panganiban and National Food Authority Administrator Gregorio Tan.

The Philippines is expecting 65,000 MT of American rice this month in accordance with the $20-million commodity loan from the United States, otherwise known as PL 480.

"The testing of the presence of LLRICE601 in the imported rice is imperative and if the contamination is found, the government has no other recourse but to ban the shipment," said Jessica Reyes-Cantos, R1 Lead Convenor.

DA's guidelines on the commercialization and importation of GMOs state that all imported GMOs intended for food, feed and processing has to be approved by the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) on the first shipment.

"Not doing the mandatory testing despite the US government's announcement of contamination makes our government the laughing stock around the world. The European Union and Japan had already imposed stringent measures to prevent the entry of contaminated US rice," said Cantos.

The European Commission adopted on 23 August, a decision requiring that all consignments of US long grain rice be tested to ensure that they do not contain the unauthorized genetically engineered rice, LLRICE 601.

Japan has suspended imports of U.S. long-grain rice following a positive test for trace amounts of a genetically modified strain not approved for human consumption.

Riceland Foods, a farmer-owned cooperative in the US announced that an unapproved genetically engineered strain of rice has been found in trace amounts in commercial supplies over a wide area in the nation’s southern rice-growing region— Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.  The positive results were geographically dispersed and random throughout the rice-growing areas.

"The strangest thing is, LLRICE 601 is not even approved for commercialization in the US and was field tested way back in 2003.  But then, in GMOs, nothing could be less strange," Cantos said.

The unapproved rice, a long-grain variety developed by Bayer CropScience, part of the Bayer Group, contains a gene that makes it resistant to the herbicide Liberty, also known as glufosinate.

"Bayer has already made available free test kits for LLRICE, so there is no reason for the DA or BPI not to be able to do test," Cantos added.

Riceland, which is based in Stuttgart, Arkansas said the existence of a genetically engineered product in its rice was discovered in January by one of its export customers. 

Riceland said that because genetically engineered rice was not grown commercially in the United States, it initially thought that a small amount of genetically engineered corn or another crop had been mixed in with rice, perhaps through the use of a common means of transportation. 

But in May, Riceland said, the company collected rice samples from several grain storage sites and found positive results for the Bayer trait. Riceland said it then told Bayer, which confirmed the findings and said the modified rice, was present at levels equivalent to 6 of every 10,000 grains. Bayer reported this to the government on July 31.

Rice farmers in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California sued Bayer CropScience for failing to prevent its GM rice from entering the food chain. As a result of this, Japan and the European Union (EU) have placed strict limits on US rice imports and US rice prices have dropped dramatically. 

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