By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas rice farmers and landowners have another month to file for a share of a $750 million settlement with Bayer CropScience over claims the company contaminated the nation’s long grain rice crop with genetically modified rice.
Don Downing of St. Louis, one of the lead attorneys in the case involving farmers in Arkansas and four other states, said today the original Oct. 10 deadline for farmers to file has been extended to Nov. 21.
The settlement extends to all U.S. farmers and landowners who planted long-grain rice between 2006 and 2010, Downing said.
He estimated that more than 15,000 farmers and landowners, about half of them in Arkansas, are eligible to apply for the settlement.
“Year-in-and-year-out during the 2006 to 2010 period, Arkansas averaged about 50 percent of the rice acres planted in the country,” Downing said.
Under the agreement, announced in July, growers representing 85 percent of the average acres planted from 2006 to 2010 must participate or Bayer Crop Science can walk away from the deal, Downing said.
“It’s a very complicated settlement document which we negotiated for many months, so I would encourage them to hire a lawyer they are comfortable with,” Downing said. “It is something you need legal help on.”
Downing said its likely most of the claims have already been filed and he expects the 85 percent threshold to be met.
“We have a good feeling for how many people have submitted claims and we think we’re certainly going to be above 85 percent for that, but in order to be considered for the 85 percent those claims have to determined to be complete and not materially deficient,” Downing said. “The claims administrator is right now involved with going through all of the claims that have been submitted.”
The attorney said the settlement does not include farmers, landowners or companies that individually filed lawsuits against Bayer CropScience and won.
One of those, a 2010 case in Lonoke County where a jury ordered Bayer CropScience to pay 12 farmers $48 million, of which $42 was in punitive damages, has been appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
