Sarah Mirando  |  July 20, 2011

Category: Legal News

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest Class Action Settlement News!

Bayer GM Rice Litigation Class Action Settlement

By Sarah Pierce

 

long grain rice
Germany-based Bayer CropScience has agreed to pay up to $750 million to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit with U.S. farmers who claimed a strain of the company’s unapproved genetically modified rice contaminated the food supply and hurt their crop prices. 
The Bayer genetically modified (GM) rice settlement ends scores of lawsuits filed against the company by farmers in five states. The Bayer rice litigation goes back to August 2006, when the United States Department of Agriculture announced that Bayer’s genetically modified Liberty Link rice was found in the U.S. long-grain rice supply. 
Discovery of the contamination led to a dramatic drop in U.S. rice prices, as fear that the rice was unsafe, along with the notion that genetically altered rice was impure, led the European Union and other major markets to stop purchasing U.S. rice. No human health problems have been associated with the contamination, but that wasn’t known at the time. Even today, purchases of U.S. rice are only a small fraction of what they were before the 2006 GM rice contamination. 
A consolidated class action lawsuit was filed in May 2007 by rice farmers from Arkansas, which produces about half of the nation’s rice supply, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas against Bayer and its related entities seeking damages for the injuries they sustained from the rice contamination. They alleged Bayer is accountable for the property damage, market losses, and other economic and related damages Bayer is alleged to have caused U.S. rice producers. 
The Bayer GM rice class action settlement covers all U.S. long-grain rice producers (farmers and crop share landlords) who planted rice between 2006 and 2010. Farmers who planted rice in each of the five years will be eligible to receive $310 per acre. Those who planted a specific strain of rice that was contaminated in 2006 will be eligible to receive an additional $100 per acre. The Bayer GM rice settlement is contingent on at least 85 percent of the farmers filing claims within 90 to 150 days. 
More information on the case, In re Genetically Modified Rice Litigation, can be found at www.BayerRiceLitigation.com.

 

We tell you about cash you can claim EVERY WEEK! Sign up for our free newsletter.

 

Updated July 20th, 2011

 

All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions

LEGAL INFORMATION IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
©2008 – 2010 Top Class Actions® LLC
Various Trademarks held by their respective owners.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. By submitting your comment and contact information, you agree to receive marketing emails from Top Class Actions regarding this and/or similar lawsuits or settlements, and/or to be contacted by an attorney or law firm to discuss the details of your potential case at no charge to you if you qualify. Required fields are marked *

Please note: Top Class Actions is not a settlement administrator or law firm. Top Class Actions is a legal news source that reports on class action lawsuits, class action settlements, drug injury lawsuits and product liability lawsuits. Top Class Actions does not process claims and we cannot advise you on the status of any class action settlement claim. You must contact the settlement administrator or your attorney for any updates regarding your claim status, claim form or questions about when payments are expected to be mailed out.