APHIS Biotech Rice Investigation is Concluded
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wrapped up an investigation of biotech traits getting into commercial rice that began more than a year ago.
Jason Vance
Published: Oct 8, 2007
The findings of APHIS's genetically engineered rice investigation were released Friday. The investigation began in August of 2006 when Bayer CropScience announced that Liberty Link traits had been found in trace amounts in U.S. long-grain rice. Friday's report said the investigation was unable to pinpoint how the traits were introduced into the commercial rice.
"We knew at the start of the investigation that we faced a difficult task because the field tests for these GE lines were conducted from 1998 to 2001," says Cindy Smith, APHIS administrator. "To compound this issue, we discovered that some records that might have been pertinent had not been maintained and were not available to investigators."
The report of the investigation findings is available on the APHIS web site www.aphis.usda.gov. Another report is also available that contains lessons learned from this investigation and several steps to strengthen the regulatory system and reduce the likelihood of an unintentional release. The report also recommends steps that can be taken now to improve information available to investigators in the future.
The European Union has not imported any U.S. rice during the investigation and Smith says she hopes this report will be a positive step regaining market access.
"There's been a lot of discussion from the EU requesting an understanding of what happened in this situation," Smith says. "That's why deputy administrator Rebecca Bech went to the EU to provide the results of the investigation directly and give them the opportunity to ask questions. We certainly are making every effort to provide them with the information they need."
Testing results conducted by the rice industry as of Sept. 30 for the 2007 southern long-grain rice crop continue to show the overwhelming absence of genetically engineered traits.
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