State adds 3rd year of rice-seed testing
Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The state Plant Board voted unanimously Tuesday to extend for a third year the requirement that all rice seed planted in Arkansas be tested for traces of genetically engineered varieties.
The board also re-established a $14-per-acre boll-weevil-eradication fee in 2009 for the Northeast Delta Zone and added the snakehead fish family and quagga mussel to the aquatic nuisance-species list of Arkansas' bait and ornamental fish certification program.
Arkansas first mandated rice-seed testing in 2006 after an unapproved transgenic longgrain rice was discovered in U.S. rice supplies.
The discovery disrupted about half of all U.S. rice exports, as many countries banned the product and others established testing programs.
The regulation approved Tuesday requires that any rice seed used for planting in 2009 be tested before April 1 for the presence of Bayer CropScience's LibertyLink traits. References to Cheniere and Clearfield 131 rice were removed from the regulation, along with a requirement for documented field histories of farmer-saved seeds.
Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation submitted a written comment supporting the new riceseed testing regulation as part of a broader effort to re-establish the marketability of U.S. rice.
"The quick action by the rice industry and by the Arkansas State Plant Board showed our customers worldwide a goodfaith effort to rid the U.S. rice supply of the unapproved LibertyLink traits and were necessary to bring U.S. rice back into the global marketplace," the federation wrote.
This year's U.S. rice crop tested "99.9 percent negative" for the presence of transgenic traits, said Brian King, a Marked Tree rice merchant and chairman of the USA Rice Merchants' Association.
Stuttgart rice farmer Ray Vester said the state's rice-seed testing program was largely responsible for the success to date in eliminating transgenic traits from U.S. rice supplies.
Arkansas produces about half the nation's rice crop.
"When this began, the people who were dealing with StarLink, a genetically modified corn [that contaminated U.S. corn supplies in 2000], told us, 'Don't worry. You can't solve the problem,'" Vester said.
Nonetheless, the rice industry backed efforts to eliminate LibertyLink traits from U.S. rice supplies, he said.
Testing protocols required by the European Union still are being addressed, Vester said.
"We are approaching once again acceptance of U.S. rice back into Europe," he said.
In other business, the board adopted a resolution calling for an increase in the current $50,000 bond required of termite-control companies and the establishment of a new requirement that all companies providing termite protection services in the state be covered by a damage-repair insurance policy. Legislation along these lines is expected to be introduced during the coming state legislative session.
The board also approved the assessment of a $1,000 civil penalty on Benton Flying Service Inc. of Dyess in Mississippi County. During a formal hearing in October, the aerial applicator was found guilty of violating state law regarding a glyphosate application near Lepanto, which drifted off target to a nearby grain sorghum field and caused crop damage.
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