WHAT DOES A GOVERNMENT do when it discovers that there have been illegal releases of genetically modified organisms within its borders? And that the release involved GMOs that were never approved for human consumption or even for commercial planting? In the United States, the answer in a recent

In 2001, following several years of small-scale field trials in the US, Bayer Crop-Science, a multinational corporation, abandoned its efforts to commercialize Liberty Link Rice 601 (LL 601), a genetically modified rice variety. In 2006, the company announced that LL601 had been found in long-grain rice supplies in the US. The contamination, Bayer explained according to a Washington Post article, was the result of "an act of God." This means that the genetically modified rice has been quietly multiplying in the US seed and food supply for five years.

In an effort presumed to help Bayer avoid having to undertake an expensive recall of all contaminated rice, the company applied for retroactive approval of the variety for commercial planting the same day that it publicly announced the unintentional release. Although the US Department of Agriculture had ordered another company, Aventis, to recall corn contaminated with StarLink in a similar incident in 2001, Washington was not so sticky this time. It did not issue a fine, nor did it require Bayer to pay for a recall. Instead, in November 2006, it gave LL601 retroactive regulatory approval, citing evidence that the rice, by their estimation, was perfectly safe for human consumption.

Although many experts agree that the health risks are low, the Union of Concerned Scientists in the US believes that LL601 "poses substantial risk as a plant pest." The organization recommends that a new environmental assessment of LL601 be completed and also says that there should be an investigation into Bayer's field-testing trials since the contamination shouldn't have occurred in the first place. Meanwhile class-action lawsuits against Bayer, filed by US rice farmers who suffered serious financial losses when Asian and European markets closed their doors to contaminated US rice, continue to wend their way through the court system.