USDA Bars Planting of Rice Suspected of GMO Taint
Date: 07-Mar-07
Country: US
USDA issued "emergency action notifications" to distributors to prevent planting of Clearfield CL131 seed. Similar orders will be issued to farmers to prevent use of the seed until USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection tests the rice.
Arkansas state officials say the Clearfield variety apparently carries the Liberty Link RICE601 gene material, a GMO strain made by Bayer CropScience. The rice variety disrupted the US rice industry in the summer of 2006 after the material, which was not cleared for food use, was found in commercial bins in Arkansas and Missouri.
BASF Agricultural Products, said late on Monday, that it is removing all Clearfield CL131 rice seed from the marketplace. BASF Agricultural is a unit of German chemical group BASF AG.
APHIS Administrator Ron DeHaven said his agency acted "because the genetic material detected in Clearfield CL131 seed might be regulated, in which case it would not be approved for commercial use." USDA was informed last week of the potential problem by BASF, which developed the seed, and by Ag Horizon, licensed by BASF to market the seed.
"BASF notified the USDA immediately after becoming aware of the laboratory findings and we continue to work cooperatively with USDA on this situation," Andy Lee, a director with BASF said in a statement.
Clearfield 131 was not developed as a genetically engineered variety. It is popular among US rice growers because it is resistant to red rice weed.
USDA, through its own testing, is in the process of confirming the results reported by BASF, said DeHaven.
BASF said it remains committed to the Clearfield technology and is working with Bayer CropScience to "determine the scope and source of the GM presence in Clearfield seed."
Last week, APHIS said trace levels of a previously deregulated genetically engineered trait had been identified in Clearfield CL131.
