Today brings more news on the subject. The world's biggest exporter of rice, Ebro Puleva, has announced that it has stopped trading in US grown rice due to the risks of contamination.
The story so far. Within the last month imports into Britain and elsewhere in the EU tested positive for LLRICE 601, a strain of GM rice developed by Bayer and grown in crop trials between 1998 and 2001 in the US. (20% of imports appear to be affected. EU rice imports from the US total 300,000 tonnes per annum.)
LL601 was never tested for human consumption or environmental impact. Somehow the environmental controls during the limited trials were insufficient to prevent DNA from this strain contaminating other varieties. This by itself warrants immediate investigation and correction!
The reaction from the US government and Bayer? Seek retroactive approval. (Is it just my imagination or is everything retroactive these days?)
In a separate move, the US department of agriculture yesterday said it was helping Bayer to fast track retroactive approval for the rice so it could be consumed by humans.
Arguing that the offending strain is similar to other strains that have already been approved, it has now filed a request for deregulation of the Bayer rice to the US plant health inspection service and prepared an environmental assessment on the company's behalf for a preliminary decision.
I quote the Q&A section of the Guardian article in toto (with emphasis added):
What is LLRICE 601?
Liberty Link 601 is a strain of long grain rice which contains a gene that makes it resistant to the herbicide Liberty. It was grown as an experiment in five US states between 1998 and 2001 by agrochemical giant Bayer but was never intended for commercial release.
How much contaminated rice has got into the food chain?
The US government says it has no idea, has no way of finding out and cannot predict where it may turn up.
Is it dangerous to health?
It has never been tested or approved for human consumption. But US agriculture secretary Mike Johanns insists the rice is similar to other approved strains and poses no risk to health or the environment.
The government has no fucking idea where this untested rice is and has no way of finding out!
The government admits that the rice has never been tested but somehow knows there's no risk!
The government doesn't seem to give a fuck!
Something is very, very broken in this process and something needs to be down about it now! (How much money do the Republicans get from rice growers?)
US coverage you ask?
Washington Post? - 1 article in the past month.
New York Times? - big fat zero
Google news? - very little that isn't European or Asian
Excuse me now. I'm off to Sainsbury's to buy all the Italian brown rice they've got!
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