Aventis to Bury Almost 5 Million Pounds of Biotech Rice in Texas Landfill

Source: Houston Chronicle

Publication date: 2001-05-18

May 18--DANBURY, Texas--Nearly 5 million pounds of genetically modified
rice -- the first of its kind -- is to be buried in a landfill next week
under orders from the company that had it grown in Brazoria County.

Aventis, which took a public relations hit when its bioengineered
StarLink corn was mistakenly released to consumers, apparently has decided
to destroy its first crop of genetically altered rice rather than risk its
being shipped outside the United States, where it has not been approved.

The company won't release the rice for famine relief even though the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has approved it, said Jacko Garrett, the
farmer who grew the rice under contract with Aventis.

Garrett, who formed the nonprofit
Share The Harvest foundation,
through which Texas farmers donate
rice to the needy, is frustrated that
the food won't be given away.

Trucks will start hauling the rice to a landfill near Alvin on Monday, he
said.

"It just bothers me so bad when I'm sitting here trying to find food to
feed people and I've got to go bury 5 million pounds of rice when we know
it won't hurt a soul," Garrett said Thursday. "That's 40 million people
you can feed with that 5 million pounds of rice."

Aventis officials have said they don't want to risk the liability that
could result if some of the rice should reach markets outside the United
States, he said.

"If it does, it's going to bring them more negative publicity than they
would want to handle," said Garrett, who said he understands the company's
legal concerns.

Because he grew the rice under contract to Aventis, he said, he is
obligated to follow the company's wishes to dump it.

Officials at Aventis CropScience in
Research Triangle Park, N.C., did not
return calls for comment.

Aventis, a publicly traded company with headquarters in Strasbourg,
France, has been caught in the middle of the debate over biotech food.

The company was sued last year after its genetically engineered StarLink
corn was discovered in taco shells by a coalition of environmental and
consumer groups. Government regulators had approved StarLink only for
animal feed and industrial uses because of unresolved questions about
whether it can cause allergic reactions.

The corn has not been proven to cause allergic reactions, but Aventis
has not been able to track where all of it was sent.

Known by the trade name Liberty rice, the grain that was grown in
Brazoria County for the company marked the first time that conventional
rice had been genetically modified and grown for commercial use.

Because it is resistant to one particular herbicide, farmers can
eliminate the use of others that usually are needed to control weeds and
grasses.

At Garrett Farms, between Alvin and Angleton, Liberty rice was the
highest-yielding, most-weed-free rice that was planted last year, Garrett
said.

"I had no expectation that it would do the way it did," he said.

Genetically altered corn, soybeans and cotton have been grown in the
United States for more than five years and the Grocery Manufacturers of
America estimate that 60 to 70 percent of all processed foods may contain
biotech soy or corn.

While Americans do not have strong opinions about genetically modified
food, according to a recent poll, opposition is strong in Europe and
Japan.

Aventis, formed in 1999 by a merger between French and German companies,
announced in November that it intends to divest itself of its agricultural
interests and focus on pharmaceuticals. The company had $22.3 billion in
sales last year.

Unless the company changes its mind, Garrett said, it will take 95
truckloads to take all of the Liberty rice from seven bins at his farm to
the landfill.

"And here I could be sending it to USA food banks or foreign countries in
famine," he said. "They're dying because there's no food and here we are
burying food, simply because it's genetically modified.

"I have to wonder when people will accept these technologies for the good
they bring and allow us to better feed the world and reduce exposure to
pesticides and herbicides."

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